Full text of "The Dial"

From the collection of the 



n m 



o Prelinger 

i a 

JJibrary 

p 



San Francisco, California 
2006 



1845 1847 1853 




V 

LIBRARY 

ESTABLISHED Iu2 

LAWRENCE, f,;/.SS. 







THE DIAL 



Semi- Monthly Journal of 



Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information 




VOLUME L 

JANUARY 1 TO JUNE 16, 1911 



CHICAGO 
THE DIAL COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

1911 



INDEX TO VOLUME L. 

PAGE 

AMHERST IDEA, THE . . ., .-.""." 461 

ANCIENTS ILLUMINATED, THE Grant Showerman 121 

ART, MODERN, A CRITICISM OF Edward E. Hale, Jr. . . . . 46 

BALZAC, THE GENIUS OF Lewis Piaget Shanks 90 

BIBLE TERCENTENARY, THE 287 

BROWNING'S PERSONALITY, NEW LIGHT ON . . . . . Anna Benneson McMahan . . . 207 

CENSORSHIP OF FICTION, AND SOME OTHER MATTERS . . E. H. Lacon Watson . . . . 296 

CHANCELLORSVILLE, A NEW STUDY OF James M. Garnett 216 

CHESTERTON'S GARGOYLES Edith Kellogg Dunton .... 352 

CHINA COLLECTOR, TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES OF A . . Edith Kettogg Dunton .... 475 

CRITICISM, THE NEW . 249 

CULTURE AND BUSINESS James Taft Hatfield .... 11 

DICKENS, DIVERTING DISSERTATIONS ON Percy F. Bicknett 214 

DISRAELI'S EARLIER CAREER Lawrence M. Larson .... 13 

DRAMA, ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN Lane Cooper ....... 302 

DRESS IN ENGLAND, CURIOSITIES OF Arthur Howard Noll .... 394 

EDUCATION, IDOLS OF 333 

EDUCATION, MODERN, PROBLEMS OF Joseph Jastrow 341 

EDUCATIONAL REFERENCE WORK, A GREAT M '. V. O'Shea 349 

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE ELDER MR. WELLER . . Charles Leonard Moore . . . 335 

EMPIRE-BUILDKR, THE LIFE OF AN Percy F. Bicknett 44 

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH RAMBLES OF A POET Percy F. Bicknell 391 

FICTION, RECENT William Morton Payne, 91, 266, 442 

FOLK-SONGS, AMERICAN Albert H. Tolman 261 

FRENCH REVOLUTION, A FRENCHMAN'S STUDY OF THE . . Fred Morrow Fling 212 

FRENCH REVOLUTION, LORD ACTON ON THE Henry E. Bourne 476 

FRENCH SINGERS OF THE OPEN AIR, SOME Warren Barton Blake .... 427 

GERMANY, MENACE OF, AN AMERICAN VIEW OF THE . . David Y. Thomas 265 

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, NEWLY EXPLAINED Edward Payson Morton . . . 472 

GREEK POETRY, DISENGAGING THE ESSENCE OF .... Fred B. R. Hellems 346 

HEARN, LAFCADIO, LAST LETTERS OF Frederick W. Gookin .... 9 

HEINE, THE MEMOIRS OF . . James Taft Hatfield .... 160 

HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH , 375 

IRELAND, LYRIC Louis James Block 122 

LA FARGE, JOHN, A FRIEND'S PORTRAIT OF Frederick W. Gookin .... 385 

LAWS, THE NEEDLESS MAKING OF David T. Thomas 393 

" LET Us HAVE PEACE ! " Grant Showerman 300 

LIBRARIANS' CONFERENCE AT PASADENA, THE 433 

LIBRARY IN THE COMMUNITY, PLACE OF THE Helen E. Haines 463 

LIBRARY MACHINERY vs. HUMAN NATURE 75 

LIBRARY PRESS OF 1910, ECHOES FROM THE Aksel G. S. Josephson .... 77 

LIFE, A PHILOSOPHY OF T. D. A. Cockerett 304 

LITERATURE, ENGLISH, IN SHAKESPEARE'S LIFETIME . . James W. Tupper 156 

LITERATURE, THE APPROACHES TO . . ..'.. . ;... '.".'. 425 

LORDS OF THE OCEAN, EARLIEST . . . . . '.j.v . . Josiah Renick Smith i''. . . 159 

MOLIERE, THE LATEST STUDY OF, IN ENGLISH . . . . F. C. L. van Steenderen . . . 125 

NATURE'S OPEN SHOP . ' . May Estette Cook 438 

NINETEENTH CENTURY, FOUNDATIONS OF THE '.-If- Carl Becker 387 

NOVEL, THE MODERN, AND ITS PUBLIC . j- .. '*/ . E. H. Lacon Watson .... 150 

OPERA, CHICAGO, THE .^T V v 35 

PATER, WALTER Lewis Piaget Shanks , . . . 289 

PENNSYLVANIA LN HISTORY Charles Leonard Moore ... 85 

PITT, ELDER, RISE OF THE a ~'', .'.- . . . Laurence M. Larson .... 263 

PLAYS, THREE, FOR ICONOCLASTS . . . .--^ ."-.:. . . . Edith Kellogg Dunton .... 257 

POE, AN ENGLISH ESTIMATE OF ... ? * */2*J : . ! '. . . . Charles Leonard Moore ... 16 

POE'S USE OF THE HORRIBLE .... ;.-lv : :.;.:., . . . William B. Cairns . . , . . 251 

POEM, A FAMOUS, AND ITS AUTHOR . . . . .;? 377 

POEMS, A GROUP OF LONG . . . ..7 . 1>, . ^.. . . . William Morton Payne . ... .. 53 

POETS, MISGUIDED ,. -.a . i*. . 1 .'.-.. ... ..i^.^v: . 113 



IV. 



INDEX 



POETRY RECENT William Morton Payne . . . 162 

PRE-RAPHAELITES AND OTHER VICTORIAN CELEBRITIES . Percy F. Bicknell 345 

PUBLISHER, A FAMOUS, OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . Edward Pay son Morton ... 51 

PUBLISHER OF THE OLD SCHOOL, A Percy F. Bicknell 154 

PUBLISHING AND PUBLISHERS Percy F. Bicknell 259 

QUEBEC, THE HERO OF Lawrence^ J. Burpee 87 

RACE ADJUSTMENT, PROBLEMS OF Kelly Miller ^. . 209 

Six MILLION YEARS, A HISTORY OF T. D. A. Cocker ell 88 

SOCIAL TENDENCIES IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA . . . . H. Parker Willis 354 

SOUL'S STRUGGLE INTO THE LIGHT, A Percy F. Bicknell 299 

STAGE CHILDREN 145 

SPIELHAGEN, FRIEDRICH 

SPAIN, AN IMPRESSIONIST IN George G. Brownell 127 

SPAIN OF TO-DAY Warren Barton Blake .... 308 

STEPHENS PRISON DIARY, THE W. H. Johnson 158 

STEVENSON LETTERS, THE NEW Henry Seidel Canby .... 436 

STOCK, TAKING 

SYNGE, JOHN, AND His PLAYS Warren Barton Blake .... 37 

TALE OUTWORN, NEW TELLERS OF A Allen Wilson Porterfield . . . 306 

TOLSTOY, ROMANCER AND REFORMER Percy F. Bicknell 83 

TRAVELS IN Two HEMISPHERES Percy F. Bicknell 439 

" UNCLE TOM'S CABIN " AND ITS AUTHOR William B. Cairns 469 

VEGETARIAN BIOLOGY . Raymond Pearl 128 

VICTORIAN ROMANCER, AN EARLY Clark S. Northup 119 

VIRGINIA, COLONIAL, MEN AND MANNERS OF Walter L. Fleming 48 

WANTED : A HANDBOOK OF CRITICISM Charles Leonard Moore . . . 201 

WASTE AND CONSERVATION Charles Richmond Henderson . 18 

WOMAN, THE FUTURE OF T. D. A. Cocker ell 470 

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING BOOKS, 1911 223 

CASUAL COMMENT 5, 41, 79, 115, 147, 203, 253, 292, 337, 379, 430, 465 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS . ... ... . . . 20, 56, 95, 129, 168, 217, 270, 309, 355, 396, 445, 477 

BRIEFER MENTION 23, 59, 98, 220, 274, 312, 358, 399, 450, 481 

NOTES 24, 60, 99, 132, 170, 222, 274, 312, 359, 400, 451, 482 

TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS . . s 25, 99, 171, 276, 364, 451 

LISTS OF NEW BOOOKS 25, 61, 100, 133, 171, 235, 276, 314, 364, 401, 452, 483 

EDUCATIONAL BOOKS OF THE SPRING 360 



CASUAL COMMENT 



PAOK 

Academia della Crusca, The Centenary of the 117 

Academicians, Two New 205 

Adjective, Misused, A 340 

A. L. A. Conference, The 340 

A. L. A., the, and the N. E. A., Cooperation between. 466 

A. L. A., Publishing Record of the 467 

American Literature, Why There Is Yet No 149 

Amherst's Librarian, The Resignation of 433 

Apponyi, Count, and Kossuth 205 

Archives, National, The Perilous State of Our.... 381 

Astor Library, The Close of the 340 

Autobiographical Audacity, A Delightful Bit of 147 

Biographies in Brief, Twenty Thousand 43 

Bibliographer's Task, The 5 

Blind, Literary Favorites of the 148 

Book Exhibitions at County Fairs, Effect of 81 

Books One Would Like to Own 339 

Book-stealing, Discouragement of 8 

Book Thieves Before the Children's Court 432 

Book Values, Six Million Per Cent Increase in 380 

Brett, George P.: A Publisher of Intuition 253 

Bulls and Bears on the Literary Exchange 468 

Byron Manuscript, The Story of a 81 

California County Librarians, Appointment of 382 

Canada, A National Library for 203 

Carlyle House at Ecclef echan, The 205 



Carlyle on Some of His Contemporaries 148 

Carnegie Library, The Tardy Acceptance of a 82 

Censorship, Amateur, of Current Literature 80 

Children's Book, Test of a Good 379 

Class-day Rejuvenescence of the Gray-beard Alumnus 382 

Classical Scholar, An Eccentric and Ascetic 6 

Collector's Mania Extraordinary 382 

College Journalism, The Increasing Dignity of.... 7 

"Complete Works" Department, A 295 

Connecticut State Library Building, The New 380 

Copyright Act, Canadian, The Proposed 339 

Copyright Bill, English. The Pending 41 

Copyright Laws, Our How They Impress an Outsider 203 

Criminal's Taste in Literature, The 80 

Criticism, Mr. Brownell on 340 

Dartmouth's Plans for a New Library Building. . . . 382 

Dickens Family, A Wound to the Pride of the 295 

Drama of Ideas, A Stern Arraignment of the 337 

Drama, Our Current, The Inanity of 42 

Dual Personalities, Literary and Other 80 

Editorial Record, An Extraordinary 8 

Education and Efficiency 81 

Eggleston, George Cary, Death of 338 

Emerson's Undemonstrative Generosity 148 

"Encyclopaedia Britannica," The New, as Summer 

Reading 433 



INDEX 



v. 



Fairies. Mr. Maurice Hewlett's Faith in 295 

Fogazzaro's Genius, The Late Ripening of 253 

Foreigner. Literary Assistance to the 255 

Foss, Sam Walter: Librarian, Poet and Humorist.. 204 

France, The Humanities in ... ^. 205 

French Epic of Heroic Proportions, A 150 

French Novelists. An Incentive to 256 

Galton, Sir Francis 117 

Gilbert, Sir William S., The Genial 465 

Grave-yard Poetry, Some Specimens of 431 

Gray Herbarium. A New Library Building for the 433 

Greek Scholar, A Modern 293 

Grind. The, and the Genius 430 

Government Documents. Humor in 149 

Harvard Libraries. The Organization of 82 

Headliner's Art, The 432 

Hellenists at Oxford. The Triumph of the 7 

Higginson, Colonel, A Forthcoming Memoir of 432 

Higginson, Colonel, Eighty-seventh Milestone of. ... 42 

Higginson, Colonel, Some Reminiscences of 430 

Higginson Room, The, in the Cambridge Public 

Library 433 

Hill. Adams Sherman. Death of 42 

Hippolytus. Mrs. Howe's 293 

Hoe Library. Sale of the 296 

Hoosier Farmer's Love of Books, The 253 

Hope Deferred, A Notable Instance of 466 

Human Greatness, The Mathematical Measurement of 379 

Huth Bequest to the British Museum, The 150 

Huth Library. Prospective Sale of the 116 

Imagination. Untrammeled, The Advantages of 339 

Indiana Library Legislation 382 

India, Native Literature in 254 

Indian Author, A Bohemian Tribute to an 256 

Insect Book-lovers 115 

"John Bullesses, My Idealed" 467 

Johnson, Dr., London House of 380 

Kildare, Owen: A Belated Genius 149 

Kipling, John Lockwood 117 

Language. A Highly Inflected. Advantage of a 465 

Lexicographic Industry, A Marvel of 254 

Librarianship : An Uncrowded Calling 147 

Librarian's Qualifications, The Special 116 

Librarians, Trained, The Demand for 294 

Library Books by Special Delivery 8 

Library Convention. The First National, in California 467 

Library Legislation in Maryland, Recent 86 

Library Management, An Age of Reason in 6 

Library of Congress, Growth of the 81 

Library's Governing Body. The Size of a 466 

Library's Presiding Genius, A 380 

Limited Edition. The 204 

Lincoln. A Forced Interpretation of 115 

Literary Celebrity, the Pains and Penalties of 254 

Literary Lawsuit. An Interesting 296 

London Library, Beginnings of the 338 

Magazine Fund How to Make it go as Far as 

Possible 296 

Mankato, Culture in 149 



PAGE 

Marie-Claire, The Advent of 203 

Materlinck. M., in Reflective Mood 382 

Minnesota State Prison Library, The 381 

Mispronunciation, Another Freak of 256 

Myers. F. W. H., The Late 467 

Newark Museum Association, The 7 

Newspaper's Debt to the Public Library. The 253 

New Theater. Duties of the 115 

New York Library Building, Opening of the New.. 431 

New York State Library, Destruction of the 292 

Novel-Readers, The Morbid Sensitiveness of Some.. 204 

Ohnet, Georges : A French E. P. Roe 294 

"One Way Out," Infinite Variety of the 339 

"Orchard House," The, at Concord 205 

"Orchard House." More about the 337 

Oxford, The Charm of 431 

Pearsons, Daniel K.. The Valedictory of 340 

Periodical, Unsuccessful, The Heroic End of an.... 6 

Play-writing, Quantity and Quality in 147 

Plots. The Persistence of 381 

Poe Memorial Fund, Growth of the 433 

Poet Laureate's Autobiography, A 150 

Policeman, A New York. Literary Taste in 43 

Polygrapher Extraordinary. A 116 

Prize Dissertation. A Fruitful Subject for a 468 

Prize-Story Writers, The Hopefulness of 467 

Public Library, A New Department in the 294 

Public Library as a Profitable Investment. The 116 

Public Library, Increasing Importance of the 339 

Recrimination. A Record of 203 

Reich. Emil, Death of 7 

River Wye Quest, The 465 

Rome, Facilities for Study in 255 

Roof -garden Reading-rooms for Boston 256 

Seattle Public Library's Twentieth Annual Report. . 254 

Serious Books, The Reader of 338 

Sevenpenny Reprints, Success of the 255 

Shakespeare, Mr. Shaw Pokes Fun at 42 

"Spectator's. The." Bicentenary 150 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, New Letters of 294 

Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Centennial 465 

Thackeray, The Modernity of 337 

Thirteenth Census, Distinctive Features of the 432 

Tolstoy's Desire of Seclusion 79 

Traveling-Library Methods. A Reform in 431 

Travelling Library, The Proper Ingredients of a. ... 81 

Uncut Leaves. An Unexpected Agitator Against .... 255 

Van Dyke's (Henry) Industry, By-Products of 6 

Vulgarity in Literature, What Constitutes 381 

Wagner's Forthcoming Autobiography 117 

War and Poetry, The Connection Between 292 

Ward. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Death of 115 

Whitney, Henry Mitchell : Last of Four Gifted 

Brothers 296 

Whittier Poems. Some Newly Discovered 43 

Women "Immortals," Anatole France on 43 

Word. Haunting Associations of a 117 

Writer. Successful. How to Be a 295 

Yasnaya Polyana as an International Peace Memorial 82 



AUTHORS AND TITLES OF BOOKS REVIEWED 



PAGB 

Acton, Lord. Lectures on the French Revolution . . . 476 

"Adventure. An" 355 

Albee, Helen R. The Gleam 299 

Alexander. Kirkland B. The Log of the North 

Shore Club 448 

Ames, E. S. The Psychology of Religious Experience 20 

Anderson, Melville B. The Happy Teacher 56 

Anderson. Sir Robert. The Lighter Side of My 

OflJcial Life 310 

"Angell, Norman." The Great Illusion 300 

Ashdown. Mrs. Charles H. British Costumes During 

XIX. Centuries 395 

Auerbach's Villa on the Rhine, Translated by James 

Davis. New one-volume edition 312 

Aulard. Alfred. The French Revolution 212 

Avary. Myrta Lockett. Recollections of Alexander 

H. Stephens 158 

Babbitt. Irving. The New Laokoon 46 

Baedeker, Karl. Eastern Alps, twelfth edition 450 



PAGE 

Baikie, James. The Sea Kings of Crete 159 

Bagby. George W. The Old Virginia Gentleman .... 22 

Bailey, L. H. The Country Life Movement 448 

Bailey, L. H. The Outlook to Nature, revised edition 448 

Baltzell. W. J. Dictionary of Musicians 312 

Bangs, Mary Rogers. Jeanne d' Arc 306 

Baring, Maurice. Diminutive Dramas 311 

Barter. A. Scenes from Eighteenth Century Comedies 399 

Barton. Mary. Impressions of Mexico 440 

Baskervill. C. R. English Elements in Jonson's Early 

Comedy 481 

Beacon Biographies 98 

Bell, Gertrude Lowthian. Amurath to Amurath .... 440 

Belloc. Hilaire. On Something 396 

Benson. Arthur Christopher. The Silent Isle 2O 

Bensusan. S. L. Home Life in Spain 308 

Betham-Edwards. M. B. French Men. Women and 

Books 311 

Bexell. J. A. Farm Accounting and Business Methods 481 



VI. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Bigelow, John, Jr. The Campaign of Chancellors- 

ville 216 

Bigelow, Melville M. A False Equation 357 

Bingham, Hiram. Across South America 440 

Bisland, Elizabeth. Japanese Letters of Lafcadio 

Hearn 9 

Bjb'rnson's A Lesson in Marriage, translated by Grace 

Isabel Colbrun .' 221 

Borup, George. A Tenderfoot with Peary 439 

Bracq, J. C. France iTJnder the Republic 168 

Brandes, Georg. Ferdinand Lassalle 481 

Branner, John C. Brief Grammar of the Portuguese 

Language 98 

Brooks, Robert C. Corruption in American Politics 

and Life 271 

Browne, Horace B. Short Plays from Dickens 59 

Bruce, Philip A. Institutional History of Virginia 

in the Seventeenth Century 48 

Bryce, James. American Commonwealth. Third Re- 
vised Edition 169 

Burton, Richard. A Midsummer Memory 56 

Butler, Arthur J. The Forerunners of Dante 19 

Butler, Samuel. Life and Habit, and Unconscious 

Memory, new editions 479 

Castle, Agnes, and Castle, Edgerton. Panther's Cub 443 
Chamberlain, Houston S. The Foundations of the 

Nineteenth Century 387 

Chase, Ellen. The Beginnings of the American Revo- 
lution 481 

Chase, J. Smeaton. Cone-bearing Trees of the Cali- 
fornia Mountains 449 

Chase, J. Smeaton. Yosemite Trails 445 

Chesterton, Gilbert K. Alarms and Discussions 352 

Chesterton, G. K. Appreciations and Criticisms of 

the Works of Dickens 214 

Children's Library of Work and Play 360 

Chittenden, Hiram M. War or Peace? 301 

Clinch, George. English Costume 394 

Colby, Frank Moore. Constrained Attitudes 58 

Columbia University Lectures on Literature 482 

Colvin, Sidney. The Letters of Robert Louis Steven- 
son 436 

Cooper, Frederick Taber. The Craftsmanship of 

Writing 480 

Cortissoz, Royal. John La Farge 385 

Coutts, H. T., and Stephen, G. A. Manual of Library 

Bookbinding 218 

Crane, R. T. The Utility of All Kinds of Higher 

Schooling 11 

Craver, H. W. Books by Catholic Authors in the 

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 481 

Crew, Helen Coale. Aegean Echoes, and Other Verses 166 
Crook, William H. Through Five Administrations.. 22 

Cunliffe, R. J. New Shakespearean Dictionary 23 

Cutten, George B. Three Thousand Years of Mental 

Healing 358 

Dana, J. C. Modern American Library Economy. ... 24 

D'Autremer, Joseph. The Japanese Empire 129 

Davenport, Charles B., and Davenport, Gertrude C. 

Elements of Zoology 358 

Davis, William Stearns. The Influence of Wealth in 

Imperial Rome 121 

Dawson, Warrington. The Scourge 268 

Dickens's Works. "Centenary" edition 399 

Dickey, Luther S. History of the 103d Regiment, 

Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry 312 

Dickie, James F. In the Kaiser's Capital 21 

Dobbs, John F. From Bunker Hill to Manila Bay.. 312 
Dole, Nathan Haskell. Memoirs of Bertha von 

Suttner 56 

Dustman, U. M. Book of Plans and Building Con- 
struction 220 

Dyer and Martin. Edison, His Life and Inventions. 129 

Earhart, Will. Art Songs for High Schools 60 

Eastman, Alexander. The Soul of the Indian 273 

Eggleston, George Cary. Westover of Wanalah 267 

Ellis, Havelock. The World of Dreams 398 

Ellis, S. M. William Harrison Ainsworth and His 

Friends 119 

Ellwood, Chas. A. Sociology and Modern Social 

Problems 59 

Ely, Helena Rutherfurd. The Practical Flower 

Garden 446 

Emerson's Journals, Volumes III. and IV 2J.8 

Enock, C. Reginald. Farthest West 97 

Farnol, Jeffery. The Broad Highway 267 

Fearn, Frances. The Diary of a Refugee 21 



PAGE 

Ficke, Arthur D. The Breaking of Bonds 54 

Field, Eugene, Poems of. Single volume edition.... 23 

Fisher, Sophie. The Imprudence of Prue 444 

Fitz-Gerald, John D. Rambles in Spain 308 

Flandrau, Charles Macomb. Prejudices 477 

Flecker, James Elroy. Thirty-six Poems 163 

Flamini, Francesco. Introduction to the Study of 

the Divine Comedy 98 

Fogazzaro, Antonio. Leila 445 

Ford, Webster. Songs and Sonnets 165 

Forman, Henry James. In the Footprints of Heine. 169 
Forman, Henry James. The Ideal Italian Tour.... 448 
Forman, H. Buxton. Letters of Edward John Trelaw- 

ney 270 

French, Allen. The Siege of Boston 272 

Frenssen, Gustav. Klaus Hinrich Baas 444 

Frohman, Daniel. Memories of a Manager 479 

Fuller, Thomas E. Cecil Rhodes 44 

Gade, John A. Cathedrals of Spain 478 

Gales, R. L. Studies in Arcady 168 

Galpin, Francis W. Old English Instruments of 

Music 396 

Galsworthy, John. The Patrician 442 

Garber, John Palmer. Annals of Educational Prog- 
ress in 1910 356 

Garrison, Theodosia. The Earth Cry, and Other 

Poems 167 

Garstang, John. Land of the Hittites 96 

Geddes, J., Jr., and Wilkins, E. H. Manzoni's I 

Promessl Sposl 358 

Gigliucci, Valeria. Clara Novello's Reminiscences... 130 
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Man-made World.. 471 
Graves, Charles L. Life and Letters of Alexander 

Macmillan 154 

Griffin, W. Hall, and Minchin, Harry C. Life of Rob- 
ert Browning 206 

Griffls, William Elliott. China's Story 481 

Groscup, George E. A Synchronic Chart and Statis- 
tical Tables of United States History 221 

Guest, Montague J. Lady Charlotte Schreiber's Jour- 
nals 475 

Guitteau, William Bachus. Government and Politics 

in the United States 481 

Hall, G. Stanley. Educational Problems 341 

Hall, Sharlot M. Cactus and Pine 167 

Hall, Thomas C. History of Ethics Within Organ- 
ized Christianity 219 

Halleck, Reuben Post. History of American Litera- 
ture 481 

Harben, Will N. Dixie Hart 94 

Hare, Christopher. The Romance of a Medici War- 
rior 220 

Haring, C. H. The Buccaneers in the West Indies.. 220 
Harris, Virgil M. Ancient, Curious and Famous 

Wills 480 

Harry, Joseph Edward. Sophocles' Antigone 400 

Hart, Albert Bushnell. The Obvious Orient 397 

Hartley, C. Gasquoine. Things Seen in Spain 308 

Headley, John. Tramps in Dark Mongolia 96 

Henderson, Archibald. Mark Twain 396 

Herbert, A. S. The First Principles of Heredity 60 

Herkomer, Hubert von. The Herkomers 58 

Hicks, Seymour. Twenty-four Years of an Actor's 

Life 272 

Higginbotham, John U. Three Weeks in the British 

Isles 441 

Hills, Elias C., and Morley, Silvano G. Las Mejores 

Poesias Liricas de la Lengua Castellana 358 

Hittell, Theodore H. The Adventures of James Capen 

Adams 446 

Hobson, J. A. A Modern Outlook 354 

Hollander, Jacob H. David Ricardo 481 

Holme, Chas. Peasant Art in Sweden, Lapland, and 

Iceland 98 

Howard, William Guild. Laokoon 24 

Hueffer, Ford Madox. Memories and Impressions... 345 
Hunt, William, and Poole, Reginald L. Political 

History of England 273 

Husband, Joseph. A Year in a Coal Mine 357 

Husband, M. F. A. A Dictionary of Waverley Charac- 
ters 24 

Hutchinson, Horace G. A Saga of the "Sunbeam".. 441 

Hyatt, Stanley Portal. People of Position 93 

Jackson, Vincent. English Melodies 450 

James, George Wharton. Heroes of California 131 

James, Grace. Joan of Arc 306 

Jepson, Willis Linn. The Silva of California 221 



INDEX 



vu. 



PAGE 

Jerrold, Lawrence. The Real France 309 

Jervis, W. P. A Pottery Primer 399 

Johnson, Rossiter. History of the Civil War, revised 

and enlarged edition 221 

Johnston, Harry H. The Negro in the New World.. 209 
Johnston, R. F. Lion and Dragon in Northern China 130 

Joline, Adrian Hoffman. Edgehill Essays 397 

Jones. S. Carleton. Out of Drowning Valley 94 

Jordon, David Starr. The Call of the North 24 

Jordon, David Starr. Ulrich von Hutten 24 

Jonrdan. Philip. Cecil Rhodes 217 

Karpeles, Gustav. Heinrich Heine's Memoirs 160 

Kennedy, Chas. W. Poems of Cynewnlf 59 

Kester, "Vaughan. The Prodigal Judge 269 

King, Leonard W. History of Sumer and Akkad. ... 97 

Kirkham, Stanton Davis. East and West 438 

Knight, William. The Glamour of Oxford 221 

Krehbiel, Henry Edward. The Pianoforte and Its 

Music 356 

Lang, Andrew. The World of Homer 131 

Lamed, J. N. A Study of Greatness in Men 311 

Lamed. .1. N. History for Ready Reference, Second 

Supplementary Volume 221 

Lawton, Frederick. Balzac 90 

Leacock, Stephen. Literary Lapses 132 

Learning, Thomas. A Philadelphia Lawyer in the 

London Courts 478 

Lewisohn's, Ludwig. German Style 355 

Library Economy, Modern American 400 

Little, Archibald. Gleanings from Fifty Years in 

China 477 

Lloyd, Henry Demarest. Mazzini and Other Essays. 96 

Lloyd, J. A. T. Two Russian Reformers 129 

Lomax, John A. Cowboy Songs 261 

Longford. Joseph H. Story of Old Japan 97 

Longman's Historical Illustrations 221 

Luffmann, C. Bogue. Quiet Days in Spain 127 

Luquiens, Frederick Bliss. Three Lays of Marie de 

France 450 

Mackail, J. N. Lectures on Greek Poetry 346 

Mackereth, James A. A Son of Cain 164 

Mahan, A. T. The Interest of America in Interna- 
tional Conditions 265 

Mangold. George B. Child Problems 273 

Marriott-Watson, H. B. Alise of Astra 267 

Masefield, John. Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. 481 

Mason, Redfern. The Song Lore of Ireland 122 

Mathews. John L. The Conservation of Water 19 

Matthews, Brander. Moliere 125 

Matthews, F. Schuyler. Familiar Trees and Their 

Leaves, revised edition 450 

Maude, Aylmer. The Life of Tolstoy 83 

Mead, Edwin D. Mohonk Addresses 59 

Meade, Rebecca Paulding. Life of Hiram Paulding. . 98 

Meredith's Works, Memorial Edition 220 

Meriwether, Lee. Seeing Europe by Automobile.... 441 

Merrill, Charles E., Jr. Donne's Letters 221 

Mitchell, Lewis. Life and Times of Cecil Rhodes. . . 44 
Monroe, Paul. A Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. I ... 349 

Monypenny, W. F. Life of Disraeli, Vol. 1 13 

More, Paul Elmer. Shelburne Essays, seventh series 57 
Moore, F. Frankfort. The Commonsense Collector. . 399 
Moore. F. Frankfort. The Life of Oliver Goldsmith 472 

Moulton, Richard G. World Literature 480 

Mudge, Isadore G., and Sears, M. Earl. A Thackeray 

Dictionary 24 

Mumby, Frank A. The Romance of Book Selling. . . . 259 

Murray, Gilbert. Sophocles' CEdipus Rex 400 

Musicians' Library 59 

Neale, Walter, and Hancock. Elizabeth H. The 

Betrayal 268 

Neihardt, John G. The Dawn-Builder 269 

Neilson. William Allan. The Chief Elizabethan 

Dramatists 358 

Newton, Joseph Fort. Lincoln and Herndon 131 

Nicholson, Meredith. Siege of the Seven Suitors .... 94 

Nixon. Paul. A Roman Wit 400 

Nixon-Roulet. Mary F. The Spaniard at Home 308 

Novicov. J. War and Its Alleged Benefits 301 

Noyes, George R. Dryden's Poems 23 

Noyes, George R. Selected Dramas of Dryden 23 

O'Brien, R. Barry. John Bright 357 

Orbaan, J. A. F. Sixtine Rome 399 

O'Reilly, E. Boyle. Heroic Spain 308 

Osborn, Henry F. Huxley and Education 450 

Osborn, Henry F. The Age of Mammals 88 

Ostwald, Wilhelm. Natural Philosophy 356 



PAGB 

Oxford Library of Prose and Verse 221, 45O 

Paine, Harriet Eliza. Old People 59 

Pancoast and Shelly. First Book in English Litera- 
ture 23 

Parrott, Thomas M. Plays and Poems of George 

Chapman 59 

Paul. Herbert W. Famous Speeches 124 

Paullin, Chas. O. Life of Commodore John Rodgers. 58 
Pennypacker, Samuel W. Pennsylvania in American 

History 85 

Perrin, Bernadotte. Plutarch's Cimon and Pericles. 23 

Peterson, Arthur. Sigurd, A Poem 55 

Phillips, Stephen. Pietro of Siena 53 

Phillips, Stephen. The New Inferno 54 

Phillpotts. Eden. Wild Fruit 162 

Pinchot, Gifford. The Fight for Conservation 19 

Podmore, Frank. The Newer Spiritualism 272 

Pollard, Alfred N. Records of the English Bible 399 

Porter. Charlotte. Lips of Music 167 

Porterfield, Allen Wilson. Karl Lebrecht Immermann 399 

Pound, Ezra. The Spirit of Romance 218 

Powell, E. P. How to Live in the Country 449 

Proctor, Mary. Half Hours with the Summer Stars 450 
Protheroe's, Ernest, New Illustrated Natural History 

of the World 450 

Quiller-Couch, Arthur. Brother Copas 443 

Quiller-Couch, A. T. Lady Good-for-Nothing 93 

Ransome, Arthur. Edgar Allan Poe 16 

Reinheimer, Hermann. Survival and Reproduction.. 128 

Renwick, George. Finland To-day 441 

Reynolds, Stephen. Along Shore 22 

Rice, Wallace. The Little Book Series 59 

Rix, Frank R. The Mastersinger 6O 

Roberts, Charles G. D. Neighbors Unknown 438 

Robertson, Donald. Beauty's Lady and Other Verses 166 
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. The Town Down the 

River 164 

Rodd. Rennell. The Englishman in Greece 221 

Rolland. Romain. Jean-Christophe 91 

Rose. Hgloise Durant. Dante 54 

Rosebery, Lord. Lord Chatham 263 

Saintsbury, George. Historical Manual of English 

Prosody 274 

Salaman. Malcolm C. Old English Mezzotints 98 

"Sale, Mark." A Paradise in Portugal 441 

Salisbury. R. D. Elementary Physiography 23 

Salley, Alexander S., Jr. Narratives of Early Caro- 
lina 450 

Santayana, George. Three Philosophical Poets 23 

Sargeaunt, John. Dryden's Poems 23 

Savage. Ernest A. Story of Libraries and Book Col- 
lecting 95 

Schelling. Felix E. English Literature During the 

Lifetime of Shakespeare 156 

Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labor 470 

Scollard, Clinton. Chords of the Zither 165 

Scott, Cyril. The Voice of the Ancient 163 

Scott. John Reed. The Imposter 94 

Scott-James, R. A. An Englishman in Ireland 169 

Sharp, Dallas Lore. The Face of the Fields 439 

Shaw, Bernard. The Doctor's Dilemma 257 

Shaw. Rafael. Spain from Within 309 

Shorter, Edwin Du Bois. American Oratorv of 

To-day 124 

Shotwell, Walter G. The Life of Charles Sumner... 22 

Shuman, E. L. How to Judge a Book 57 

Singleton, Esther. How to Visit the Great Picture 

Galleries 450 

Sloan, William Milligan. Life of Napoleon, revised 

and cheaper edition 220 

Slosson, Edwin E. Great American Universities .... 21 

Smalley. George W. Anglo-American Memories 478 

Smith, Horace. The War Maker 398 

Smith, Robinson. Cervante's Don Qnijote 99 

Snaith, J. C. Mrs. Fitz 92 

Social Ethics. A Guide to Reading in 23 

Spingarn, J. E. The New Criticism 249 

Stimson, Frederick Jesup. Popular Law-Making .... 393 

Stoker, Bram. Famous Impostors 97 

Storr, Francis. Half a Hundred Hero Tales 358 

Stowe. Charles E., and Stowe, Lyman B. Harriet 

Beecher Stowe 469 

Stratton-Porter, Gene. Music of the Wild 438 

Straus. Ralph. Robert Dodsley 51 

Strlndberg, August. Mother Love, and The Creditor 310 
Studies in Langauge and Literature in Honor of 

James Morgan Hart 274 



Vlll. 



INDEX 



Strunsky, Simeon. The Fatient Observer 311 

Super, Chas. W. Plutarch on Education 98 

"Sylva, Carmen." From Memory's Shrine 3 

Taylor Edward Robeson. Lavender and Other Verse 166 
The Holy Bible, reprint of the 1611 authorized ver- 

s j on 399 

Thomas, Edward. Feminine Influence on the Poets. 398 

Thurston, Katherine Cecil. Max 

Thurston, E. Temple. The Patchwork Papers 219 

Townlev Houghton. English Woodlands and Their 

Story 449 

Treat, Payson J. The National Land System 309 

Tucker, T. G. Life in the Roman World 121 

Turner Essays in American History 128 

Upward, Allen. Lord Alistair's Rebellion 266 

Van Hise, Charles R. Conservation of Natural Re- 
sources 18 

Verses by "V." I 62 

Villari, Pasquale. Mediaeval Italy ,219 

Waite, Alice V., and Taylor, Edith M. Modern Mas- 
terpieces of Short Prose Fiction 400 

Walford, L. B. Recollections of a Scottish Novelist 95 

Wallace, Alfred Russel. The World of Life 304 

Wallington, Nellie fUrner. American History by 

American Poets 450 

Wallin's The Angel of Death 221 

Wallis, Frank E. How to Know Architecture 168 



Ward, A. W., and Waller, A. R. Cambridge History 

of English Literature, Vols. V. and VI 302 

Watts, Mary S. The Legacy 444 

Weale, B. L. Putnam. The Conflict of Color 210 

Weaver Lawrence. Small Country Houses of To-day 447 

Webb, Henry Law. The Silences of the Moon 271 

Wells, H. G. The New Machiavelli 266 

Wetmore, Monroe N. Index Verborum Vergilianus . . 358 

White, Stewart Edward. The Cabin 447 

Whitney, Helen Hay. Herbs and Apples 166 

Whiting, Lillian. Boston Days, revised edition 482 

"Who's Who" (English) for 1911 221 

Wicksteed, Joseph H. Blake's Version of the Book 

of Job 220 

Wilcox, Delos F. Great Cities in America 170 

Williams, Jesse Lynch. The Married Life of the 

Frederic Carrolls 269 

Williamson, C. N., and Williamson, A. M. The 

Golden Silence 443 

Willcocks, M. P. The Way Up 94 

Willson, Beckles. Life and Letters of James Wolfe. 87 
Winter, William. Gray Days and Gold, new edition 391 

Winter, WMlliam. Over the Border 391 

Woodside District Library, Index Catalogue of the . . 221 
Wordsworth's Sonnets. Riverside Press Edition .... 60 
Workman, W. H., and Workman, Fanny B. The Call 

of the Snowy Hispar 440 

Young, A. B. Plays of Thomas Love Peacock 400 



MISCELLANEOUS 



PAGE 

Acrobatic Art, A Word for. Irving K. Pond 205 

Alcott Memorial, The. Charles Welsh 256 

"American Economic Review, The" 313 

Austen, Jane, and Winchester Cathedral. (Mrs.) 

M. G. Murray-Lane 298 

"Byron Manuscript," The Newly Discovered. Samuel 

A. Tannenbaum 153 

Byron Manuscript, The. Chas. J. Sawyer 256 

Cambridge Mediaeval History, Announcement of. 24, 359 

"Children's Library of Work and Play" 360 

Copyright, Anglo-American. Lavin Hill 435 

Dramatic Situations, The Thirty-six Original, F. H. 

Hodder and David Lloyd 152 

Earle, Alice Morse, Death of 170 

Fogazzaro, Antonio, Death of 222 

Fraser, Alexander H. R., Death of 483 

"Graphic Arts, The" 222 

History and Macaulay. Charles Woodward Hutson. 83 

Hoe Sale, The 359 

Home University Library of Modern Knowledge, 

Announcement of 313, 400, 483 

"Hundred Years to Come, A." 8. T. Kidder 435 

Japanese Language, Recent Tendencies in the. 

Ernest W. Clement 384 

Lane Co., John, Reorganization of 483 

Library Renewals, The Question of. Samuel H 

Ranch 82 

Lincoln as a Statesman. Chas. M. Street 8 

Lippincott, Craige, Death of 313 

Literature, How One Man "Took." V. Gilmore Iden 468 
Lowell and the Russian Mission. George Abbot 

James 435 

"Mizzeled," Another Mourner of. Lelia M. Richards 153 



PAGE 
Modern Language Association of America, Central 

Division of, Sixteenth Annual Meeting 60 

Onomatopoetics. Casicell A. Mayo 298 

Oxford Dictionary of Current English, The Concise.. 451 
Plato and Dante, Cosmography of. William Fair-field 

Warren 153 

Poetic Resemblances. E. R. F 468 

Poets, Misguided, and the Public Library. Louis I. 

Bredvold 153 

"Political Science Quarterly," One Hundredth Num- 
ber of 24 

Preston, Harriet Waters, Death of 451 

Princeton University Press, Mr. Charles Scribner's 

Gift to 451 

"Print-Collector's Quarterly, The" 482 

"School Review, The," Change of Editorial Man- 
agement of 360 

S6che, Leon : The "Anecdotalist" of French Ro- 
manticism. Albert Schinz 383 

Serious Reading, The Pleasures of. Anne Warner. . 118 
Shakespeare, Mr. Shaw's Attitude Toward. Mar- 
garet Vance 118 

Stevenson's Works, "Swanston Edition," Announce- 
ment of 451, 482 

"Thirteen Original Situations," The, and "Eleven 
Ancestral Witticisms." Daniel Edwards Ken- 
nedy 118 

Tolstoy's Unpublished Manuscripts 359 

Tombstones as a Source of Historical Information. 

John Boynton Kaiser 256 

Wagner's Autobiography, Announcement of 401 

Words and Their Ways. Charles Welsh 206 



THE DIAL 

i/l SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

yiicrHrn Criiitism, gismsshm, anfr dfttformathm 



EDITED BY \ Volume L. 

FRANCIS F. BROWNE J -Vo. 589. 



1 1 Q1 1 
. 1, J.J.. 



Wet*, a copy./ Pure ABTS BUILDING 
^ a year. 1 203 Michigan Blvd. 




A REMARKABLE BOOK 

THE CORSICAN 




FOUR IMPRESSIONS 



A Diary of Napoleon 



CRITICAL OPINIONS 



FOUR IMPRESSIONS 



" It may be said without qualification that it is the most important contribution 
to Napoleonic literature that has yet appeared." New York Herald. 



" It supplies a want hitherto unmet in 
Napoleonic literature. . . . Mr. John- 
ston has done his work skilfully, and it 
was a work well worth doing." 

Liv ing Age (Boston), 



" It is necessary now for even the casual 
student of the life of this most remark- 
able of moderns to have at hand this 
book if clear light on the subject is de- 
sired.** St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 



" It is the unrolling of one of the most wonderful of minds, the frank, 
unblushingly frank, revelations which a great man made of his weaknesses. 
The spectacle of a dissection of a character by its owner is seldom brought 
within a brief compass so effectively as it has been brought by Professor 
Johnston's sympathetic understanding of subject and reader." Boston Transcript. 



" It is easily believable that no clearer 
revelation of the great Emperor will 
ever appear than this remarkable and 
unintended self-revelation." 

Washington, D. C., Star. 



" It's an intensely interesting book, and 
has us see Napoleon clearly, has us 
understand him better than we could 
by all the screeds of history.** 

Chicago Inter Ocean. 



" Every word is Napoleon's own. . . . He has here painted his picture as 
Pepys and the other famous diarists never succeeded in painting theirs. . . . 
One of the great diaries of literature." New York Times. 



$1.75 net. Postage 15 cents. 

BOSTON HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY NEW YORK 





THE DIAL, [Jan. 1,1911. 



"Get the book and read it yourself, for there 
never was another like it, or one half as good." 

RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD'S new novel 

Jim Hands 

Read what others of the best reviewers say of Jim Hands 

" A novel of uncommon interest." 
"A book one welcomes with delight." 

" Excellent for many a reason for its wholesome warm- 
heartedness and flashes of insight." 

"Jim Hands is a real man, sound and fine." 

"Full of a quick sense of character and a ready humor." 

"An artistic success approaching perfection." 

" Has that peculiar faculty of causing first a chuckle, then 
a choke in the throat a smile, and then a mist of 
tears, and all of them are worth while." 

" A profitable book as well as a companionable one." 

" Genuine, direct, and lovably convincing." 

" A thoroughly human book, of vital and abiding interest." 

" Crowded with human documents unfolded with all the 
gifts of a born teller of stories." 

Jim Hands 

Cloth, $1.20 net Postpaid, $1.32 



TH MACM i LLAN COMPANY 






THE DIAL 

tlg Journal of ILiterarg Criticism, Discussion, an& Enfonnatum. 



THE DIAL {founded in 1880) it published on the Itt and 16th oj 
each month. TKUU or SUBSCRIPTION, 82. a year in advance, pottage 
prepaid in the United State*, and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian 
pottage 50 cent* per year extra, RKMITTAXCXS should be by check, or 
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY. 
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions tcill begin iriih the current 
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub- 
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription 
is desired. AovmsTisrsa BATES furnished on application. All com- 
munications should be addressed to 

THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. 

Entered aa Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 589. 



JA]STUARY 1, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



COXTEXTS. 



TAKING STOCK 



PAGE 
3 



CASUAL COMMENT 5 

The bibliographer's task. An eccentric and ascetic 
classical scholar. The end of an unsuccessful peri- 
odical. The by-products of Dr. Henry Tan Dyke's 
industry. An age of reason in library management. 

The increasing dignity of college journalism. 
Emil Reich, historian, essayist, and optimist. The 
Newark Museum Association. The triumph of the 
Hellenists at Oxford. To discourage book-stealing. 
An extraordinary editorial record. Library books 
by special delivery. 

COMMUNICATION 8 

Lincoln as a Statesman. Chas. M. Street. 

LAFCADIO HEARN'S LAST LETTERS. Frederick 

W. Gookin 9 

CULTURE AND BUSINESS. James Toft Hatfield . 11 

DISRAELI'S EARLIER CAREER. Laurence if. 

Larson 13 

AN ENGLISH ESTIMATE OF POE. Charles 

Leonard Moore 16 

WASTE AND CONSERVATION. Charles Richmond 

Henderson 18 

Van Hise's The Conservation of Natural Resources 
in the United States. Pinchot's The Fight for Con- 
servation. Mathews's The Conservation of Water. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 20 

Reflections of a hermit-philosopher. Studies in the 
Psychology of Religion. The diary of a daughter 
of the Confederacy. A journalistic treatment of 
Universities. An American's impressions of Berlin. 

Life of the 'longshore fisherman. Sketches of 
men and manners in old Virginia. Glimpses of six 
Presidents and their families. A ponderous biog- 
raphy of a great personality. For the student of 
Shakespeare. 

BRIEFER MENTION 23 

NOTES 24 

TOPICS IN JANUARY PERIODICALS 2o 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 25 



TAKING STOCK. 

It is impossible to measure the influence of a 
great writer upon the generation in which he 
fives and works. Certain outward signs there 
are, in the form of a traceable moulding of 
public opinion, as shown in the way in which 
his idealism becomes the acknowledged motive- 
power of men of action, or in the form of that 
discipleship which makes the individual the 
radiating centre of a school of influence propa- 
gating his idealism by offshoots and obviously 
imitative embodiments. These effects are always 
more or less manifest to the student of literary 
history and of intellectual affairs in the broader 
sense, but they fall far short of giving a full 
account of the matter. They show us the surface- 
flow of the current of tendency, but they leave 
the subtler part of its action unrevealed. For 
it is by its permeation of the sub-soil of human 
consciousness, rather than by its visible erosions, 
that the influence of a great writer does its last- 
ing work, making possible some unexpected and 
rich new product of human sympathy or enlight- 
enment. We recall what Lowell once said of 
Emerson : " To him more than to all other causes 
together did the young martyrs of our Civil War 
owe the sustaining strength of thoughtful hero- 
ism that is so touching in every record of their 
lives." We think also of the example of Cer- 
vantes, who " smiled Spain's chivalry away," 
when he seemed to be doing no more than pro- 
vide entertainment for his readers, and of Milton, 
who steeled the forces of puritanism for their 
warfare of spirit against sense, when he seemed 
to be engaged only in the poetical elaboration 
of an outworn mythology, and of Mazzini, who 
raised Italy from the dead, when he seemed 
merely to be plotting against principalities and 
powers in the ordinary way of revolutionary 
politics. 

Such influences as these are slowly exerted, 
and it is a long while before their results are 
declared. They work, for the most part, upon 
minds without articulate power, upon the im- 
pressionable minds of the young, quietly but 
potently, until the time ripens for their trans- 
lation into deed. When that times comes, the 
outcome is apt to be surprising, for it is the 
resultant of innumerable spiritual forces, singly 
insignificant perhaps, but collectively irresis- 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



tible, because all are exerted in the same general 
direction and toward the accomplishment of the 
same general purpose. We believe that the 
chief service done by a great writer for his 
fellow-men is that of thus fitting for action the 
generation that is growing up, of quickening the 
sympathies and clarifying the thoughts of the 
young, who will later have the shaping of the 
world in their own hands. And this incalcu- 
lable power to stimulate the imagination and 
strengthen the will of adolescent humanity is 
immensely heightened by the fact that it pro- 
ceeds from a living being, from a voice that 
issues, not from the tomb, but from a breathing 
organ of human speech. It is true that the 
voice must make its appeal to nearly all who 
heed it through the medium of the printed page, 
but as long as it is known to be the utterance 
of a man among men it has from that very fact 
an added force. The reader who heeds it can- 
not forget that it is within the bounds of possi- 
bility that some favored hour may bring him 
into the presence of its possessor, to be thrilled 
by its actual accents, and warmed by the glow 
of the living personality which is its setting. 
That faculty of hero-worship which is the attri- 
bute of all generous young souls instinctively 
demands the concrete embodiment of its object ; 
it is a tribute that loses much of its natural ardor 
when paid to a phantasm. 

The sum of all these reflections is that the 
world is made rich in a very special sense by 
the great writers who are living in it, and that 
no heritage of past glories can prevent humanity 
from seeming impoverished when its intellectual 
leaders cease from their labors. The observa- 
tion is especially pertinent just now, when the 
last leaf has fallen from the tree of genius that 
flourished so luxuriantly a generation ago, and 
when the world must face the fact that the ac- 
counts of a great literary epoch are practically 
closed. For it is the simple truth that there is 
no writer now anywhere alive who is the peer 
of the half-dozen who have adorned the past 
decade, or of the score or more who have made 
splendid the literary annals of the past thirty 
years. Just as in a commercial enterprise, the 
first month or so of the new year is needed to 
settle up the affairs of the old, and prepare its 
balance-sheet, so in the large matters of a cen- 
tury's intellectual business, it takes about a 
decade of the new century to clear up the ac- 
counts of the old, and make it possible to esti- 
mate the achievement of the hundredyear. 

Upon this occasion, then, when the twentieth 
century is just ten years on its way, it may not 



be unprofitable to take stock in the literary 
world, to reckon up our quick assets, and to 
set down what may seem advisable to the score 
of profit and loss. Some unsettled accounts 
there must needs be, some overlapping activities, 
for centuries are artificial periods, after all, and 
the Weltgeist recks little of them. Still, the 
line between the nineteenth century, which we 
know in full, and the twentieth, the develop- 
ments of which we may only surmise, is rather 
more definitely drawn than is often the case with 
such arbitrary divisions, and the old stock (to 
recur to our previous figure) is pretty well dis- 
posed of , while we hardly know as yet what are the 
wares that will take its place upon our shelves. 

Among the losses of the recent past we think 
of such great men as Tolstoy, Bjornson, Ibsen, 
Carducci, and Swinburne. Casting our eyes a 
score of years yet farther back, we have the 
vision of such men as Tourguenieff, Auerbach, 
Freytag, Hugo, Renan, Taine, Tennyson, 
Browning, Rossetti, Morris, Arnold, Ruskin, 
Carlyle, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, 
Lowell, Holmes, and Whitman. This is a 
cursory retrospect only ; a more particular one 
would disclose other losses comparable with 
many of these. But it suffices for our purpose, 
which is merely to show clearly that we now 
live in an age comparatively poverty-stricken 
as to the richer personalities of literature, and 
seemingly incapable of holding aloft the torch 
so long held alight by those giant runners 
in the race. It is a condition too obvious 
to call for demonstration ; the youth who in 
1880 faced the future might count upon the 
living spiritual guidance of such men as the 
youth of 1910 look for in vain along the line 
of the literary horizon. Can it prove possible 
that these latter-day youth, when they in turn 
shall have rounded their half-century, will be 
able to look back during their own lives upon 
anything like our array of great nineteenth- 
century figures? 

Let us make a comparative and somewhat 
more detailed survey of the situation. For 
Russia, we have, in the place of Tourguenieff 
and Tolstoy, only such men as Andreieff and 
Gorky. For the Scandinavian countries, we 
have, in place of Bjornson and Ibsen and 
Drachmann and Rydberg, only such men as 
Hamsun and Brandes and Strindberg. The 
case of Germany is better, for the veterans 
Heyse and Spielhagen remain, and with them 
there are the younger figures of Hauptmann 
and Sudermann and Frenssen. But the case 
of France is depressing, since we may hardly 



1911-] 



THE DIAL 



find substitutes for Hugo and Renan and Taine 
in such men as Rostand and Anatole France, 
even throwing in Maeterlinck (as a writer in 
French) for good measure. And it would be 
foolish even to hint that any living Italian 
say d'Annunzio or Fogazzaro could be held 
a worthy successor of Carducci. Spain, indeed, 
offers us Galdos and Echegaray, fairly equival- 
ent to the best of their predecessors, and Poland 
makes a finer showing with Sienkiewicz than it 
could boast at an earlier age. The greatest 
figure among English men of letters now living 
is undoubtedly that of Mr. Thomas Hardy, the 
sole survivor of the company of his peers and 
more than peers who stood shoulder to shoulder 
thirty years ago. The case of America is the 
most discouraging of all. We admire such men 
as Mr. Howells and Mr. James, and hold them 
in our deepest affection, but they hardly fill the 
places of the poets we have lately lost Sted- 
man and Aldrich and Moody and not at all 
the places of such seers and singers as Emerson 
and Whittier and Longfellow and Lowell. 

Now that our hurried stock-taking is over, 
and we are facing the essential facts of world- 
activity in literature at the present day, we 
cannot feel altogether cheerful about the situa- 
tion. The feeling does not arise merely from 
the fact that the list of the great recently de- 
parted vastly outweighs the list of the best that 
the world of the living has to offer. This fact 
in itself would be sufficient cause for serious 
reflection, and we are made still more serious 
when we compare the two lists more specifically, 
thinking of the contrast between the two sets of 
men in the matter of style and the general power 
of expression, in the matter of intellectual 
authority, and in the matter of moral weight. 
When we reinforce the comparison by taking 
into account the lesser writers, past and present 
the men who, while not individually of the 
first rank, are perhaps collectively more repre- 
sentative of their respective periods than the 
men of towering genius we have a still more 
depressing sense of the general lowering of 
standards. More often than not, we are offered 
preciosity and strained effort in the place of style, 
flippant superficiality as a substitute for wisdom, 
and a materialistic or hedonistic attitude toward 
the great problems of conduct instead of a rev- 
erent recognition of the moral law and glad 
submission to its behests. What poets of our 
day could say with Dante 

" In la sua voluntade & uostra pace," 
what opportunist philosophers could be sharers 
of Spinoza's sublime faith in the good, of Kant's 



awe in contemplation of man's imperious inner 
instinct of righteousness ? 

Yet we may, after all, take heart when we 
think of the familiar saying about the darkest 
hour and the dawn, or when we recall Schopen- 
hauer's confutation of the counsels of despair. 
"Die Quelle, aus der die Individuen und ihre 
Krafte fliessen, ist unerschopflich und unendlich 
wie Zeitund Ratim . . . Jene unendliche Quelle 
kann kein endliches Maass erschopfen : daher 
steht jeder im Keime erstickten Begebenheit, 
oder Werk, zur Wiederkehr noch immer die 
unverminderte Unendlichkeit off en." There 
may be prophets even now growing up among 
us, in the most adverse environment, who are 
destined in days to come to hold the world's 
ear no less compulsively than the greatest of 
those whose recent loss seems to have left us so 
strangely bereft of inspiring guidance. 



CASUAL COMMENT. 



THE BIBLIOGRAPHER'S TASK, like that of the 
lexicographer, the index-maker, the compiler of 
almanacs, and many another fashioner of the tools 
used by other workers in literature or science, is a 
rather cheerless one. A consciousness of duty per- 
formed must often be the chief if not the only reward. 
In turning the leaves of the latest issue of "The 
Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of America," 
which contains an appended list of " American 
Bibliographical Publications " and one of " Bibliog- 
raphies of Bibliographies," one cannot but admire 
the zeal and self-devotion displayed in the compila- 
tion of many of the learned but very restrictedly 
useful works there mentioned. For example, what 
return in fame or fortune can be hoped for by the 
author of a bibliography of writings on paraphysis 
and hypophysis in the brain of the alligator, or by 
the enthusiastic aurist who has laboriously compiled 
a " partial bibliography of recent papers relating to 
the Eustachian tube " ? A little better chance for 
popular recognition seems probable in the case of 
another bibliographer who has interested himself 
in the literature relating to " meals for school- 
children " and has drawn up a list of references. 
And when we come to the subject of aeronautics 
we find ourselves in a domain comparatively rich in 
appeal to the average reader. A " Bibliography of 
Aeronautics," from the pen of Mr. P. Brockett, and 
published by the Smithsonian Institution, is de- 
scribed as reaching to the rather surprising length of 
nine hundred and fifty-four pages. But not one of 
these special bibliographical lists can be compared in 
dryness and technicality with the bibliographies of 
bibliographies, twenty-five of which are named in the 
" Bulletin." Especially admirable in these respects 
is M. Leon VaUeVs " Bibliographic des Bibliog- 
raphies," containing, with its supplement, more than 



6 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



eleven hundred pages. Another monumental work 
in the same department is the great "Biblio- 
graphic pale"ographico-diplomatico-bibliographique 
ge'ne'rale," in two volumes, by P. Namur, published 
at Lidge in 1838. In good truth, there seems to 
be no sort of book, however remote from ordinary 
human interests, that cannot be written if one will 
but follow Johnson's example in the making of his 
dictionary, and set oneself doggedly to it. Never- 
theless, it is not likely that bibliography will ever 
be one of the crowded professions. 

AN ECCENTRIC AND ASCETIC CLASSICAL SCHOLAR, 

of vast learning and striking originality, was re- 
moved from our corporeal vision in the recent death 
of Professor J. E. B. Mayor, of the University of 
Cambridge. Best known to the world of letters by 
his magnum opus, his erudite edition of Juvenal, 
he was known to his friends as a vegetarian, a tee- 
totaler, a bachelor recluse, a lover of old authors, 
and the possessor of one of the finest libraries in 
Cambridge, all bought with the money saved on 
food, as he took pride in declaring. On his semi- 
starvation diet, which he succeeded in bringing down 
as low as twopence a day, he reached the ripe age of 
eighty-five and over, having in the strenuous days of 
his editorial labors on Juvenal proved to his own 
satisfaction that the less he ate the better he could 
work. It was only medical intervention that cut 
short a rather prolonged period of no eating at all. 
Omniscience was his foible, and he could quote from 
the classics in a way that might have made old 
Robert Burton turn green with envy. The special- 
ization of modern science he had small regard for, 
holding that the man of science could not see life 
steadily and see it whole. He was fond of lecturing, 
being a frequent speaker at the Victoria Institute, 
in London, and he was a pulpit orator of marked 
originality. His studies in Juvenal of the luxury 
and corruption of Rome had led him, his friends 
averred, to adopt the simple life; but he himself 
denied that even in the worst days of the Empire 
the Romans were any more addicted to luxury than 
some modern nations. Whatever the cause, he 
adopted a mode of life that made him a singularly 
interesting and attractive figure in the university 
world in which he lived. 



THE HEROIC END OF AN UNSUCCESSFUL PERIODI- 
CAL is chronicled in an open letter from Mr. C. D. 
Spivak, 240-242 Metropolitan Building, Denver, 
Colorado, addressed " to medical librarians and all 
booklovers." The periodical in question died game, 
as the following extracts from the letter will show. 
" The year 1898 will be known in the annals of 
medicine by an epoch-making event. In that year 
'Medical Libraries,' a bi-monthly publication de- 
voted to the interests of medical libraries, first saw 
the light of day in the city of Denver. For several 
years it made its irregular and spasmodic appear- 
ance, and closed its career in a blaze of glory, A.D. 
1902. Its circulation reached the astounding num- 



ber of 120. What it lacked in quantity it made up 
in quality. Among its admirers, subscribers, and 
contributors it counted the foremost librarians of 
the day [here a brilliant galaxy of names]. Now 
comes the proud editor and publisher of said defunct 
periodical and offers to send to all medical librarians 
and to all who are interested in freak medical 
journalism, complete sets of vols. 2, 3, and 4, and 
incomplete sets of vols. 1 and 5, for the asking. 
All the said sad editor asks in return is that these, 
his dear departed ones, be reverently laid out, 
decently shrouded, adequately coffined, properly 
epitaphed, securely inhumed, and be unostenta- 
tiously gathered unto their fathers in God's acre. 
He devoutly and prayerfully hopes for their resur- 
rection." Who now will give these " dear departed 
ones " a reposeful abiding place where the wicked 

cease from troubling and the weary be at rest? 



THE BY-PRODUCTS OF DR. HENRY VAN DYKE'S 
INDUSTRY as preacher and teacher, which have 
mostly taken the form of poems, essays, short 
stories, and chapters on religion and ethics, are so 
considerable in volume that all sorts of extravagant 
estimates have been formed concerning the annual 
amount received by him in royalties on his more 
than thirty volumes of prose and verse. Probably 
his revenue from this source has now become suffi- 
ciently large to render his salary as professor of 
English literature at Princeton not exactly indis- 
pensable to him, and to make irresistibly inviting 
the prospect of a life free from the irksomeness of 
regular lectures, weekly faculty meetings, and stated 
examinations. At any rate the published report of 
his resignation from the chair which he has held 
since 1900 most of that time in connection with 
the pastorate of the Brick Presbyterian Church in 
New York need not greatly surprise the world, 
and to his readers the announcement will bring 
hope and expectation of an even more rapid suc- 
cession of books from his pen than hitherto. In 
enumerating the activities of this versatile pastor- 
professor, one should not fail to mention his appoint- 
ment as American lecturer at the University of 
Paris in 1908-9, when he chose for his subject 
" Le ge"nie de 1'Ame'rique " and, incidentally, disap- 
pointed some of his admirers by not, as they thought, 
making the most of his opportunity. It will be 
interesting to note what effect his greater leisure 
will have on his literary productivity. 



AN AGE OF REASON IN LIBRARY MANAGEMENT 

was entered upon, in this country at least, as long 
ago as the formation of the American Library 
Association at the centennial celebration of the 
Declaration of Independence. The mediaeval chain- 
ing of books and the much more recently prevalent 
jealous suspicion of library visitors and readers 
have in our own times given way to cordial and 
trustful relations between library administrators and 
library users. In the latest issue of the " Brooklyn 
Public Library Handbook " one notes approvingly 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



the extreme liberality with which that library is 
conducted. Its privileges are open to " any resi- 
dent of Greater New York or any non-resident in 
business in the city." Its travelling libraries are 
delivered free of all expense to any society, club, 
charitable institution, or similar organization, within 
the Borough. The library and all its branches are 
open for the circulation of books every day in the 
year. Works in several volumes are counted as 
single books and are lent as such. Special cards, 
entitling the holder to six books at a time in addition 
to the two books obtainable on the regular card, are 
issued to teachers, students, and others engaged in 
special study. Vacation privileges are liberal. Books 
for the blind are " delivered through the mail to 
the nearest Branch Post Office free of charge, and 
may be returned in the same way." One remnant of 
bureaucratic unreason, however, still lingers in this 
admirably administered institution : " No book will 
be exchanged on the same day on which it is taken 
out, unless a mistake has been made by the Library 
assistant." (But " a book may be returned at any 
time," which is well.) The defense of this regula- 
tion is plausible enough, but the fact that some very 
busy libraries, including the Boston Public Library, 
permit as frequent exchanges as the borrower 
wishes, tends greatly to weaken its force. The 
vigorous growth of the Brooklyn library since its 
small beginnings of thirteen years ago speaks vol- 
umes (some six hundred thousand, we believe) for 
the wisdom and efficiency of its management. 


THE INCREASING DIGNITY OF COLLEGE JOURNAL- 
ISM manifests itself from time to time in noteworthy 
ways, and rejoices those who see in the student 
periodical a most valuable and efficient school of 
authorship as well as an institution for the training 
of administrative and business talent in the publish- 
ing field. Not long ago one of the Harvard under- 
graduate publications (the " Lampoon," we believe) 
erected a fine building for its own use and moved 
into it with appropriate ceremonies ; and now word 
comes of the incorporation of the Daily Princetonian 
Publishing Company, with Mr. Charles Scribner, 
of the class of '75, Mr. Bayard Stockton, '72, and 
three members of the senior class, constituting a 
board of directors, and Dr. Woodrow Wilson, '79, 
Mr. Robert Bridges, '79, and Mr. Andrew C. 
Imbrie, '95, as further members of the corporation. 
The purpose of the incorporating act is to establish 
a fixed policy for this student daily and to give it 
the benefit of advisory aid and support from a cer- 
tain number of directors chosen out of the alumni. 


EMIL REICH, HISTORIAN, ESSAYIST, AND OPTIM- 
IST, Hungarian by birth, cosmopolitan in culture 
and tastes, and a most stimulating writer on a great 
variety of subjects, died in London the llth of 
December. After receiving his academic training 
at Prague, Budapest, and Vienna, he devoted him- 
self to that self-education which is the beginning of 
real wisdom, and which he hoped to acquire for him- 



self in the great libraries of the world. But by the 
time he was thirty years old he decided that for the 
true comprehension of history, his chosen study, 
something besides books was necessary; but he 
started on those travels which brought him to this 
country for a five-years' sojourn, and thence turned 
him toward France for another four years, and to 
England for twelve, in the course of which he lec- 
tured frequently at Oxford, Cambridge, and in 
London, and was employed by the British govern- 
ment in the preparation of the Venezuela boundary 
case. His published writings are many, but we 
shall name here only his " Hungarian Literature," 
" History of Civilization," " General History," 
" Foundations of Modern Europe," " Success among 
Nations," "Plato as an Introduction to Modern 
Life," and "Success in Life." A breezy, buoyant, 
optimistic tone characterizes his work and has con- 
tributed not a little to his success in letters and in 
life. ... 

THE NEWARK MUSEUM ASSOCIATION, which has 
issued its First Annual Report, was organized in 
the spring of 1909 "to establish in the City of 
Newark, New Jersey, a Museum for the reception 
and exhibition of articles of art, science, history 
and technology, and for the encouragement of the 
study of the arts and sciences." Incorporated under 
the laws of a State that has sanctioned the incor- 
poration of many less beneficent societies, the 
Newark Museum Association has begun its educa- 
tional and uplifting work by opening rooms in the 
city library building, under the active supervision 
of the librarian, Mr. John Cotton Dana, for the 
free exhibition of permanent and loan collections of 
paintings and other art objects, and of such other 
articles as may properly find a place in the cases 
and on the shelves of a museum. This movement 
for increasing the usefulness of Newark's fine, large 
library building in every legitimate way calls to 
mind the similar educational activities entered upon 
years ago by the City Library Association of Spring- 
field, Mass., where, as it happens, Mr. Dana was 
librarian immediately before his call to Newark, 
and where a handsome white marble structure has 
just been added to the library-museum group of 
buildings. It seems not unlikely that New Jersey 
may be here somewhat indebted to Massachusetts 
for a valuable suggestion. Mr. Dana, we note, is 
the secretary of the board of trustees of the new 
association. ... 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE HELLENISTS AT OXFORD, 

in the recent vote of the Congregation to retain 
compulsory Greek, after a year of discussion as to 
the advisability of yielding to the "practical" trend 
of education and abolishing the prescribed study of 
the noblest of literatures, will rejoice all true friends 
to the cause of letters. The Oxford action is of 
world-wide interest and will exert world-wide in- 
fluence. Especially will the English-speaking world 
take note of this momentous decision of a long-vexed 
question, and will pause in its impetuous eagerness 



8 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



to substitute what it imagines to be pecuniarily gain- 
ful studies in the place of what it is disposed to 
regard as the mere frills and foolish adornments of 
elegant culture. Professor Gilbert Murray, it is 
interesting to learn, favors a certain degree of re- 
laxation in Greek requirements, and would have the 
schools of science and mathematics relieved from 
the compulsory study of that language. Further, 
in answer to the gibe that Greek is a class badge, 
" So, a short time ago was French," he says, "and, 
a short time before that, the alphabet. We want 
Greek to be a class badge no longer." This Oxford 
decision, retaining Greek and thus causing its re- 
tention in the secondary schools, will tend greatly 
to prevent its soon becoming a mere class badge. 



To DISCOURAGE BOOK-STEALING from libraries 
any helpful suggestion cannot fail to be always 
welcome. From Lewiston, Maine, there comes, 
through the columns of " Public Libraries," an 
ingenious and original plan for the diminution of 
unregistered book-borrowing. The librarian at 
Lewiston writes that with a circulation of about 
sixty thousand volumes an annual loss of more than 
one hundred and seventy-five from the open shelves 
had been sadly noted, until the following preventive 
device was adopted : " Into the card-pocket in the 
back of each book is thrust a long card of some 
brilliant-colored stiff cardboard which extends two 
inches or so beyond the cover when the book is 
closed. These cards are stamped conspicuously 
with consecutive numbers, thereby keeping tally 
and suggesting method to the borrowers. They 
also bear the request stamped with rubber type, 
' Please exchange this card at the desk.' . . . The 
long cards effectually prevent anyone from forget- 
ting to register his book, and their vivid color ren- 
ders them so conspicuous that he hesitates to dis- 
pose of them if he is not entirely alone." This 
plan has so far worked admirably at Lewiston. 
For further details see the December number of 
the above-named periodical. 



AN EXTRAORDINARY EDITORIAL RECORD has 

been made, in his busy life of letters, by Sir Wil- 
liam Robertson Nicoll, better known, before his 
knighthood of this year, as Dr. W. Robertson 
Nicoll. From a speech of his published in "The 
British Weekly," of which he has long been editor, 
it appears that in the omniscience and omnipotence 
of his early prime that is, in the year 1886, when 
he must have been about thirty-six years old he 
undertook the editorship of some half-dozen periodi- 
cals at the same time. They included " The Brit- 
ish Weekly," "The Bookman," "The Expositor," 
" Woman at Home," and certain other publications 
issued by the book-publishing house with which he 
is still connected. That he is now content to drive 
a team of fewer horses may indicate that with ad- 
vancing years he has become a wiser even though 
not a sadder man. A continuation and publication 



of these literary reminiscences of a remarkably 
busy and successful literary man would gratify his 
wide circle of readers. 

* 

LIBRARY BOOKS BY SPECIAL DELIVERY may now 
be had from the St. Louis Public Library, which 
has made arrangements with the Missouri District 
Telegraph Co. to send books by its messenger boys 
to such card-holders as care to avail themselves of 
this service. The charge for delivery or return of 
books within the city limits varies according to dis- 
tance from ten to sixty cents, and covers simply the 
cost of carriage. If the innovation meets with favor, 
the library may institute a messenger service of its 
own and thus considerably reduce the cost to the 
card-holder ; but such mode of delivery will prob- 
ably never become inexpensive enough to be other 
than an emergency service. Strictly speaking, this 
is really no innovation in the library world. For 
many years the Philadelphia Library, a semi-public 
institution, has employed district telegraph messen- 
gers to deliver and bring back books, at the mem- 
ber's expense and upon his request. And many 
other libraries must have had more or less frequent 
recourse to the same convenient service. 



COMMUNICA TION. 

LINCOLN AS A STATESMAN. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In the review of Goldwin Smith's " Reminiscences," 
in your issue of December 16, Mr. Smith is commended 
for his freedom from the " popular rage " with regard 
to Lincoln on the ground that " Lincoln's chief merit 
lay in his unfailing honesty." The reviewer maintains 
that Lincoln was not a statesman, and did not even have 
an appreciation of the effect of his own position, in its 
national as well as inter-national bearings. He says: 
" He [Lincoln] entertained the apologetic and partial 
reasons which occupied public attention and concealed 
in part the true force of events. The working classes 
in England had a more thoroughly correct view of 
the war than most Americans. The question was not 
whether we should allow another nation to spring up on 
the soil of the United States, but whether a slave-holding 
nation should establish itself at our side with exacting 
and hostile claims." 

In 1858, in the well-known debates, Lincoln laid the 
basis of his position in a scriptural principle that de- 
feated him for the United States Senate that year and 
elected him President two years later. That principle 
found its first great impulse, under our government, 
in Webster's and Corwin's opposition to the Mexican 
War's development into a greed for " more space." 
But neither Webster nor Corwin, appreciating as they 
did the effect of more territory as a menace to fratri- 
cidal strife, dared recognize the real condition of the 
State as Lincoln did. And while Seward announced 
the " irrepressible conflict," Lincoln saw in the conflict 
a principle beyond: this nation could not endure, one-half 
free and one-half slave. This found utterance in 1858. 
And here we have what our reviewer says Lincoln 
should have appreciated and did not. When the war 
came, his position as President was, to obey the Consti- 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



tution, suppress the rebellion, defend the union, preserve 
the government. The war developed the opportunity 
to issue the Proclamation of Emancipation without vio- 
lating the Constitution. Lincoln was not a soldier; he 
was a statesman. 

Lincoln never believed " a slave-holding nation should 
establish itself at our side with exacting and hostile 
claims." He warned us that, if it did, that nation 
would either absorb the nation to the north or be ab- 
sorbed by it. The states would continue to be one 
household, even though a new house must be built and 
new regulations adopted. 

Further, Lincoln announced a principle of states'man- 
ship in 1859, applying it to the impassioned conditions 
then existing, which any student of Lincoln, contemplat- 
ing him as detached from the " indiscriminate lauda- 
tion " that sees little but his honesty or his Republic- 
anism, cannot but appreciate in a Lincoln attitude 
towards the impassioned conditions uppermost in our 
present political agitations. This principle appears in 
a letter of April 6, 1859, declining an invitation to 
speak at a Thomas Jefferson Birthday function in 
Boston. The entire letter should be read to appreciate 
the force of the principle. That principle is that man 
must be considered above the dollar. It is truer now 
than it was then: " It is now no child's play to save the 
principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this 
nation." 

Litterateurs can profit by a sane study of Lincoln's 
type of mind and style of expression as much as can 
those property-intoxicated Republicans who seek justifi- 
cation for their policies and methods by a use of the 
magic name of Lincoln as a Republican. In the pre- 
face to Emerson's " Parnassus," the seer says that poetry 
teaches the enormous force of a few words. Poetry 
teaches this as much by its enormous waste of words 
as it does by its occasional use of a unique word or 
phrase or verse that charms the ear or mind forever. 
Lincoln teaches the meaning of a few words as poetry 
cannot. There must always, of necessity, be more 
waste than wisdom in versifying. But Lincoln was 
brief, and his words, " candid as mirrors, gave the per- 
fect image of his thought." Time cannot change their 
fundamental value to any student of organized society. 
His Gettysburg address said what was most needed to 
be said. And it is fortunate that it was said in a " per- 
fectly simple and straightforward way." And, strange 
as it may seem, the literary quality of pathos is here in 
its sombre beauty as I have not seen it noticed by the 
" critics," as it is not in much of his more lauded ex- 
pressions. 

One word more. We should cease trying to hammer 
honesty into the exquisite natures of our budding men 
in their childhood by the use of the names of Lincoln 
and Washington. It is as childish for grown-up men 
to do this as it is to do that other childish thing that 
Lincoln ridiculed, doing things " under the party lash 
that they would not on any account or for any consider- 
ation do otherwise." Talk to the children about Lincoln's 
shrewdness more and his honesty less and we will appre- 
ciate the force of honesty more, will realize that he 
who is single-minded can see what humor meant to 
Lincoln, and in the new light will feel a new patience 
and faith, helpful to our children, helpful to our pens, 
helpful to our citizenship, because we have been born 
again in new minds as well as hearts. 

CHAS. M. STREET. 

St. Joseph, Mo., Dec. 23, 1910. 



[eto 



LAFCADIO HEART'S LAST LETTERS.* 



The profound impression made by the publi- 
cation, four years ago, of " The Life and Letters 
of Lafcadio Hearn " is deepened and strength- 
ened by the printing of another volume of his 
letters. Those now given to the world were, for 
the most part, written to Professor Basil Hall 
Chamberlain of the Imperial Japanese Univer- 
sity, a friend for whom Hearn felt high respect 
and warm affection. They form a connected 
series extending from early in 18 90, when Hearn 
first arrived in Japan, to the latter part of 1894. 
In them he poured out his inmost thoughts, feel- 
ing sure of intellectual sympathy whatever might 
be the subject that happened to engage his at- 
tention at the moment. 

The charm of these letters is manifold. The 
wide range that they cover is remarkable, and 
especially so considering the isolated life that 
Hearn led. A mind so keenly alive as his and 
so extraordinarily sensitive would have found 
food for thought in any environment. That he 
should crave novelty is not strange. Nor is it 
cause for wonder that the shyness that held him 
aloof when in personal contact with his fellows 
should have as its correlative poignant longing 
for companionship with friends whom he could 
recognize as his intellectual equals. Such com- 
panionship Professor Chamberlain gave him. In 
return he let few days pass during the years of 
his residence in Matsue and Kumamoto without 
a chat with him on paper. 

These outpourings are the fruit of a mind 
surcharged with thought and impelled by inner 
necessity to its expression. With delightful 
absence of self -consciousness the writer tells of 
the happenings about him, comments upon the 
curious lore he has picked up, and describes 
lovely scenes he has chanced upon in his wan- 
derings. From these he turns to thoughts sug- 
gested by books he has read, or evoked by 
memories of past experiences of men and things. 
Now he discourses upon Balzac and Zola, then 
upon gothic architecture, or the utility of super- 
stition, or the impermanence of opinions, and 
anon he recalls a dramatic episode about a 
Polish brigade in the Franco-Prussian war. 
Again he is captivated by some Japanese folk- 
tale, or provoked by the stupidity of the mission- 
aries, or concerned with the rhymes in ProvenQal 

* THE JAPANESE LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEAKN. Edited, 
with an introduction, by Elizabeth Bisland. Illustrated. 
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. 



10 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



poetry. But whatever his theme he never fails 
to exemplify his ideas about letter writing. 

" What you say about letters that coulent de source 
I feel strong sympathy with for two reasons. In the 
first place letters not spontaneous give one the notion 
that the writer feels a certain distrust in abandoning 
his thoughts to paper, and consequently has not toward 
his friend that perfect feeling which casts out fear. The 
second is that the receiver is also forced into a certain 
constraint and artificialness in his replies; then the 
matter becomes a mere drudgery. Of course there are 
other cases, such as the very curious one you suggest, 
which I take to be ruled by a sort of sesthetic formality, 
the reluctance of the artist to be for a moment in- 
artistic, like The'ophile Gautier answering a reproach 
about not writing by the phrase : ' Ask a carpenter to 
plane a few planks for fun.' " 

It is easy to see how this phrase of Gautier's 
must have amused Hearn, for writing was his 
chief recreation as well as his life work. His 
letters to his friends were written with the 
utmost ease and pleasure. His books, on the 
contrary, were the product of unremitting effort. 
" I never write," he confessed to Professor 
Chamberlain, in a letter describing his method 
of work, " without painfully forcing myself to 
it." Every page was rewritten at least four or 
five times, and one much admired paragraph 
was recast no less than seventeen times before 
he could accept it as an adequate vehicle for 
the expression of his thought. " Composition 
becomes difficult only when it becomes work, 
that is literary labour without a strong inspira- 
tional impulse or an emotional feeling behind 
it." Being written without any expectation that 
they would ever be printed, his letters have less 
refined subtlety of phrase than his books, but 
neither this quality nor that of style is wanting, 
and they have also the directness and vivacity 
of the sketches of a master painter. In them 
his delight in the " physiognomical beauty " of 
words to quote his own phrase finds full 
vent. Professor Chamberlain's condemnation 
of the use of Japanese words in Hearn 's books 
called forth this outburst: 

"For me words have colour, form, character; they 
have faces, ports, manners, gesticulations; they have 
moods, humours, eccentricities; they have tints, tones, 
personalities. That they are unintelligible makes no 
difference at all. Whether you are able to speak to a 
stranger or not, you can 't help being impressed by his 
appearance sometimes, by his dress, by his air, 
by his exotic look. He is also unintelligible, but not a 
whit less interesting. Nay ! he is interesting BECAUSE 
he is unintelligible. I won 't cite other writers who 
have felt this same way about African, Chinese, Arabian, 
Hebrew, Tartar, Indian and Basque words, I mean 
novelists and sketch writers. 

" To such it has been justly observed: ' The readers 
do not feel as you do about words. They can 't be sup- 
posed to know that you think the letter A is blush- 



crimson, and the letter E pale sky-blue. They can't 
be supposed to know that you think KH wears a beard 
and a turban; that initial X is a mature Greek with 
wrinkles; or that " no " has an innocent, lovable, 
and childlike aspect.' All this is true from the critic's 
standpoint. But from ours, the standpoint of 

The dreamer of dreams 
To whom what is and what seems 

Is often one and the same, 
To us the idea is thus : 

" Because people cannot see the colour of words, the 
tints of words, the secret ghostly motions of words : 

" Because they cannot hear the whispering of words, 
the rustling of the procession of letters, the dream- 
flutes and dream-drums which are thinly and weirdly 
played by words : 

"Because they cannot perceive the pouting of words, 
the frowning and fuming of words, the weeping, the 
raging and racketing and rioting of words : 

" Because they are insensible to the phosphorescing 
of words, the fragrance of words, the noisesomeness of 
words, the tenderness or hardness, the dryness or juici- 
ness of words ; the interchange of values in the gold, 
the silver, the brass, and the copper of words : 

" Is that any reason why we should not try to make 
them hear, to make them see, to make them feel ? 
Surely one who has never heard Wagner, cannot ap- 
preciate Wagner without study ! Why should the peo- 
ple not be forcibly introduced to foreign words, as they 
were introduced to tea and coffee and tobacco ? 

" Unto which the friendly reply is, ' Because they 
won't buy your book, and you won't make any money.' 

" And I say : ' Surely 1 have never yet made, and 
never expect to make any money. Neither do I expect 
to write ever for the multitude. I write for beloved 
friends who can see colour in words, can smell the per- 
fume of syllables in blossom, can be shocked with the 
fine elfish electricity of words. And in the eternal 
order of things, words will eventually have their rights 
recognized by the people.' " 

Notwithstanding his love for the mere ab- 
stract sound of words, Hearn was too much of 
an artist in their use and too clear a thinker to 
find satisfaction in the sound if there were 
even a suspicion of failure to convey the precise 
shade of meaning intended. The qualities he 
perceived in them existed for him because he 
recognized the possibility of portraying the most 
intangible and evanescent nuances, because he 
felt their power of suggestion, of connotation^ 
of poetic imagery more convincing than direct 
statement. Yet he realized also the value of 
simplicity. " After attempting my utmost at 
ornamentation," he wrote, " I am converted by 
my own mistakes. The great point is to touch 
with simple words." 

The letters printed in this volume reflect the 
varying moods of the writer. The pendulum 
swings first this way and then that. As he him- 
self says, " they are certainly a record of illusion 
and disillusion." So many are the themes 
touched upon that a dozen extracts would not 
suffice to give an idea of their variety and inter- 



1911.] 



THE 



11 



est. There is a great deal in them about Japan 
and the Japanese, but much less on the whole 
than one would expect to find. He was, how- 
ever, addressing those who knew Japan better 
than he did, and the thing that most fre- 
quently crops out is his detestation of " the frank 
selfishness, the apathetic vanity, the shallow 
vulgar scepticism of the New Japan that prates 
its contempt about Tempo times, and ridicules 
the dear old men of the pre-meiji era." 

Mrs. Wetmore's preface and introduction are 
devoted to a warm appreciation of Hearn as a 
man and a writer, and to an impassioned vindi- 
cation of her friend from the aspersions cast 
upon him by the circulation of what she stig- 
matizes as "un veracious legends" about his 
early life. " Among the legends," she tells us, 
" is a great deal of fanciful nonsense wrapped 
up in the technical verbiage of the specialist, 
which always daunts and convinces the ignor- 
ant." On the facts as related by her she makes 
out a good prima facie case. But Hearn's 
readers will not need this testimony. For them 
the nobility of his character shines forth in his 
writings. Mrs. Wetmore does not overstate 
the truth when she asserts that " his preoccupa- 
tion with all visible fairness is the most salient 
character of his genius, and a careful study of 
his books and of his great mass of letters will 
show that he is singularly free from all gross- 
ness not once in any word of his, written or 
printed, is found the leer of the ape, the repul- 
sive grin of the satyr." Grapes are not gathered 
from thorns. The significant quality in all of 
Hearn's writings is the mental and moral uplift. 
As happily phrased by his biographer : " To 
those who can see no purpose in giving one's 
whole life to attain artistic excellence in the 
expression of thought and emotion Lafcadio 
Hearn's personality will convey no meaning. 
But those capable of being touched and stirred : 
by such a nature will brush away the ' imperti- 
nences ' and find inspiration and stimulus in ! 
the personality of Lafcadio Hearn." 

FREDERICK W. GOOKIX. 



CULTURE AXD BVSIXESS.* 



With praiseworthy directness, and on regret- 
table paper, Mr. Crane assembles all his resour- 
ces for an annihilating assault upon all kinds of 
higher schooling for young men who have to 
make their own living and who expect to pursue ! 

* THE UTILITY OF ALL KINDS OF HIGHER SCHOOLING, j 
An Investigation. By R. T. Crane. Chicago : Published by j 
the Author. 



a comiercial or industrial career. No one can 
read t.e entire book without getting the im- 
pressioi of wholesome independence and of a 
blunt aid business-like purpose of going straight 
at the f;cts as the author grasps them. I take 
strong exception to Mr. Crane's statement, "I 
shall rec.ive neither the thanks nor the sym- 
pathy of tie college clique for this investigation," 
for every 'riend of culture must welcome all the 
light whici can be thrown upon the seamy side 
of our educational system : would to God there 
were less <f truth in these indictments ! Here, 
for example, is the charge that our colleges are 
exerting an influence in the direction of "hedg- 
ing" and way from frankness ; while nothing 
less than fatal, if true, is the accusation that 
" educated people take just as much interest in 
worldly nutters as others." Is it worth while 
to pay attention to this sort of challenge ? If I 
read the signs rightly, I think we'd better! 

Like Lord Byron, whose " young mind was 
sacrificed to books," enormous numbers of our 
best youth, in Mr. Crane's opinion, are being 
condemned to miserable failure by our academic 
practices. Not only is the author quite right in 
his opinion that the atmosphere of most Ameri- 
can colleges is charged with little of the serious- 
ness of business, but there are a good many 
other vreak points which might equally well be 
noticed. Comparing the English universities, 
we must bitterly lament the paralysis of the 
American student's personal interest in govern- 
mental and other high responsibilities ; even 
worse is the charge, which might sometimes be 
laid against our universities, of capitulation to 
barbarism and impiety, their ill-bestowed hos- 
pitality toward those who show no allegiance to 
supreme values. Our higher schools often 
harbor a set of students whose doings might 
better be the subject of consideration by that 
publication of the Carnegie Institution which 
presents Contributions to the Study of the 
Behavior of Lower Organisms ; after years of 
toleration, specimens whom no amount of curry- 
ing can ever groom are turned forth to be- 
come leaders of Philistinism, High-priests of the 
Unimportant. The acceptance of size as the 
canon of efficiency is nothing short of wicked. 

While we pay full tribute to the author's 
candor, we are not without disturbing suspicions 
that his dialectic method is not quite impec- 
cable : certain definite statements are deficient 
in complete accuracy, as when he attributes to 
the president of Yale (page 322) a well-known 
remark of the distinguished governor-elect of 
New Jersey. His way of collecting facts, by 



12 



:E DIAJL 



[Jan. 1, 



a series of peremptory categorical questions, 
would be more convincing were it notior his 
sovereign unconcern in brushing aside wie pre- 
ponderance of the direct evidence su/mitted; 
those who take pains to answer seem to/ prevail- 
ingly "evasive," or "prejudiced," 01" liars." 
Yielding to none in our welcome of I publica- 
tion which is announced as a "live wire," we 
must still regret to see it spluttering useless 
sparks and at times endangering the Connections 
of its trolley. One statement, at tast, I be- 
lieve to be cruelly unjust : " College men are 
seldom found to be conspicuous invthe great 
moral questions affecting the welfare and happi- 
ness of mankind." The author's concession in 
favor of a universal grammar-school course 
would seem arbitrary in logic, at least to 
some of my best Greek and Italian friends 
residing on Halsted Street, Chicago. I feel 
sure that if letters had been addressed to a 
hundred of the leading business men, they 
would have given strong testimony to their 
conviction that there is " nothing in it " when 
it comes to cutting off the potential wages 
which a normal child could earn at shoe-blacking 
parlors or news-stands. Many of them go back 
to the analphabetic felicities of " a time when 
we had little of it," and have small opinion of 
any betterment of the race by such conventional 
sophistications as reading and writing. A year 
in the business itself, or in some wage-paying 
factory, they pretend, is worth for their purposes 
any three years in a public grammar-school. 
Interpreter Kelly reports that the Alaskan 
Eskimos, who have as yet seen no outsider who 
can equal them in fishing and shore-whaling, 
assert stoutly that the whole tribe of white men 
is " ilualok " or " unfit for anything." 

The author frankly delimits his cultural con- 
fession by the following definition : " By edu- 
cation I mean knowing important things." Yet 
even when we reduce the whole problem to these 
simple terms, organized scholarship still offers 
the only way by which to discover and hold in 
check the infinitely expanding body of facts. 
Even " the fellow with the flying-machine bug, 
and the person attacked by the archasological 
germ" (page 227) have a way of showing 
themselves not in the least contemptible in the 
estimate of our race. Mr. Crane is now and 
then generously inconsistent to the bald and 
utilitarian doctrine which he preaches, as when 
he is lenient enough to imply an approval of 
some "general education," apart from profes- 
sional studies, in the case of physicians. The 
man who covers only his own field never does 



quite cover it, the web of human relations is 
too intricate for that, and the educated man 
must be quick to infer the larger whole from a 
concrete symbol. The rise of Germany and the 
rapid progress of Japan are victories for the 
professor ; the significant generals of our Civil 
War were trained at West Point ; our State 
universities are making investigations which 
will result in saving millions of dollars to 
farmers who have been paying from four to ten 
times as much as they ought to do for plant- 
food. The average net earnings of an acre of 
wheat amount to less than eight dollars an acre, 
which the information gained at the University 
of Illinois increases by more than twenty dollars 
an acre. Mr. Crane's nihilistic skepticism 
reaches a point of simplicity which is no less 
than pathetic, and makes one wish to cover, 
rather than indelicately expose, the touching 
and childlike innocence of such statements as 
" A teacher can tell his pupils nothing more 
than they can find for themselves in the books "; 
" every feature of the farming industry was 
thoroughly understood long before agricultural 
colleges were started " ; " as all libraries have 
the various subjects tabulated, I can see no 
reason [this is credible] why persons desiring 
any special knowledge cannot be placed in the 
way of finding it by the librarians." 

But one cannot discuss with heart-felt interest 
a book whose scope ends at a point a long way 
this side of where the handling of so supremely 
vital a matter as education should begin. This 
plausible and crepitant work never comes within 
range of the thing which matters most to a lover 
of his kind. It has frankly to do with financial 
success as a goal. " Start with the boy, and 
make your own help "; " the only thing that 
interests business men is whether a man under- 
stands their business and can promote it "; 
" breadth and theories are just what the young 
man does not need for business success "; " can 
a foreman do his work better if he be on in- 
timate speaking terms with the azimuth ? " It 
is simply impertinent to set up as a final norm 
the standards of the Chicago market-place, a 
centre of hustling and bustling activities, but 
hardly a place which has done much to 
" Give to barrows, trays and pans 

Grace and glimmer of romance; 

Bring the moonlight into noon, 

Hid in gleaming piles of stone; 

On the city's pav^d street 

Plant gardens lined with lilacs sweet." 

However forcible the putting of Mr. Crane's 
contention may be, it is far too individualistic 
and self-centered. Conceding, if need be, all 



1911.] 



THE DLL 



13 



that he would prove, and more, we still enter a 
demurrer against his conclusion. We do not 
admit that " the greatest pleasure a man can 
have arises from the feeling that he has been a 
success in a creditable occupation." " If money 
is not the whole thing, I think it is safe to say 
that it is probably seventy-five per cent of the 
whole thing" can this be the ethics of that 
America whose infancy endured so full a, bap- 
tism of sacrifice and privation ? Let us assert in 
a very clear tone that with the mere accumula- 
tion of money an idealist has simply nothing 
to do. This doesn't imply that money has no 
value : because I insist on a little salt in my 
breakfast-food, it is not to be inferred that a 
five-pound bag of it is to be upset into the 
oatmeal-boiler. If it be true that the law of 
business success in Chicago demands a sur- 
render to worldliness, all the more is it forever 
our plainest duty to challenge, defy, and insult 
that law. The " hard-fisted battle " which we 
are invited to enter neither satisfies our taste 
nor enjoys our respect. As Remain Holland 
says in his monograph on Beethoven : " I. do 
not call heroes those who have triumphed by 
thought or force ; I call heroes those who were 
great by their heart." Not for all the spoils of 
that clangorous field will we part with the sense 
of finer values, that delicacy, tact, and refine- 
ment which belong to the education of a gentle- 
man : 

Adde quod ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes 
Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros. 

There is indeed, thank Heaven, "something 
better than mechanical pursuits and the ordi- 
nary drudgery of life." If these matters be 
lightly esteemed by the Chicago business world, 
so much the worse for the world of business in 
Chicago. 

If a leaf of autobiography be permissible, I 
should like to add that I was fairly started and 
sufficiently successful in a Chicago business from 
which every one of my immediate peers among 
the office-boys of that era (as far as I have kept 
track of them) has since gained a fortune ; no 
one of them any longer can experience my own 
romantic thrill of magic novelty in taking a 
turn in a motor-car, but I believe that I have 
always been glad that I turned to making my 
own living in a less remunerative career, for 
the simple reason that all other pleasures are 
not worth its pains. I cannot envy even the 
augmented resources of my sometime cronies : 
" He gave them their request, but sent leanness 
into their soul." If a humanist has no luxuries, 
he has, it is to be hoped, the gift to let them go 



by, ad to addjess himself blithely to rolling 
the Syphus-sfcAie of daih tasks. There may 
i's book dleges, some traitors 
.cism ; bvc every now and then 
test and i sign" some Agassiz 
to makt money," some Bur- 
to be yndicated. And so 
iat the tiirst of the soul for 
and be.uty will never be 
those n whom Mr. Crane 
tble faiires" we shall still 
the arth. Some eternal 
thai "brains and good 
ith fa -play and industry," 
irreproachably excellent i these virtues doubt- 
less are. have beeU pitiful' crowded out in the 
iment f standards in our 
life. Che tragic possibility 
humaculture might perish 
y noaeans inconceivable. 
of hher learning is com- 
mitted the sacred Vuty - helping to nourish 
and keep alive t\>is dicate plant of pure 
humanism. As fai^t as tJ college ministers to 
this, as far as it makN?s students free of the 
society of the idealists? *>ts, and prophets of 



be, asMr. C 
to schlarly 
emergs " as a p 
who ha "no 
bank \ho refus 
we ha\j faith 
" useles " trutt 
quenchtl ; some 
sees onV "mise 
salute a> the salt 
values, ligher e 
character couple 



i 

hap-hazard develc 
turbulent Americt 
that the heritage cT 
from the earth is) 
To our institutior 



mankind, it is valuable 
American state ; if it f j 
thrown ruthlessly into 
JA:| 



jyond ail price to our 
s here, it may well be 
imanity's melting-pot, 
s TAFT HATFIELD. 



DISRAELPS E-fER CAREER.* 
With the death oft^rd Beaconsfield (April 
19, 1881), there pasfl from the stage of Eng- 
lish politics one whjwas not only an eminent 
stajtesman but a j^terful political artist as 
well. Benjamin Pis-aeJi's life, particularly his 
earlier career, *as cne of singular variety and 
seeming contortions : a statesman and a lit- 
terateur, anySealist and a political campaigner, 
a radical *6d a Tory, a Jew and a Christian, 
to mentis only the more evident antitheses, he 
still achieved the remarkable feat of shaping a 
career, which, when closely studied, seems fairly 
consistent after all. It would seem that such 
a personality would offer unusual attractions 
to a biographer, and that such a career would 
be the object of apu-ly and detailed study. Biog- 
raphies have been written, but they are scarcely 
more than sketches, wholly inadequate when 
we consider the importance of the subject and 

*THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Earl of Beacons- 
field. By WiHiain Flavelle Monypenny. Volume I. Illus- 
trated. New York : The Macmillan Co. 



14 



T] 



DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



s. For t4rty 
:uly exha] ; |tive 

al side offcuch 
aeli Papns," a 

. other tfivate 

: Lord 

is privatf secre- 

rears agf Lord 

passed 
aconsfiel 
.nnounct 
.he lorn 



the wealth of available materi 
years the world has waited for a^j 
biography of Lord Bjaconsfiel 
The materials for the person 
a study are found injthe " Disi 
large collection of Itters a 
documents which on tie death 
field continued in thacare of 1 
tary, Lord Rowton. I Seven 
Rowton died, and tfl papers 
keeping of the trusteeaf the B 
According to the pulshers' a 
was " then decided j have 
biography done, andMr. Ml nypennj 
London ' Times,' a v.ll-knovf a journs 
selected to do the wet, and I since ihei 
been constantly engagij in thf 3 task.' 
volume has just apptled ; ;| nd, accoi 
present plans, the wc| willj be compl^ 
three or four volumes 

It is natural to centre tl) 
biography of Disraeli 
stone, which was issu 
stone's life was writte: 
John Morley's work is 

Similarly, the present 

gavded as of Tory or 

William Flavelle Mon 



>m 



i 



is study wi 
rival, Mr. 
years ago. 
a,f political frie 
1 cinct with liberalism, 
jiography may bej re- 
in. The author, Mr. 
^enny, has long been 



associated with the conl l-vative press ; he has 
also seen service, both jol hialistic and military, 
in South Africa, in the ijry land of the Boers. 



)sed to be in sym- 
ideas of his subject 
|,tive attitude toward 
Perhaps it is not 
relume that traces 
3nt toward Toryism 



He may, therefore, be si 
pathy with the imperialisl 
as well as with his conse 
the British constitution 
wholly fortuitous that thi 
Disraeli's political develop 
and outlines his defence ojafche traditional*con- 
stitution, including the itfoike of Lords, should 
appear on the eve of I p<jlitital campaign in 
which the leading issue/ft the " ending or mend- 
ing " of that same H<6use of Lords. 

In the volume now published, Mr. Mony- 
penny carries the narrative down to 1887, the 
year that saw Disraeli's first election to Parlia- 
ment. The period covers thirty-three years of 
the future prime minister's life, a period of con- 
siderable interest and of some romance. The 
chapters devoted to ancestry, childhood, anct 
youth, early training and influences, and similar 
matters, are written in the <-aaventional way, 

It may be said in 
found no evidence 
that his family was 
of the Inquisition 
to Venjee, whence it 



and need not detain us 
passing that the author 1 
to support Disraeli's beli 
ancient in Spain at the 
and was forced to mi 






found its way to England. " What we know 
for certain is that the grandfather, Benjamin 
D'Israeli, who ' became an English denizen in 
1748,' had his Italian home not in Venice but 
at Cento in Ferrara." The author concludes 
that the name and the family may be either of 
Spanish or of Levantine origin. 

In addition to the Disraeli papers, Mr. 
Monypenny has used letters in the possession of 
families that were closely associated with the 
Disraelis. Some use has also been made of a 
fragmentary diary which does not seem to have 
been published before. However, as most of 
the materials are already accessible to students, 
the value of the biography (at least so far as 
the first volume is concerned) will lie principally 
in the author's method and interpretation. Mr. 
Monypenny has adopted the plan of citing docu- 
ments very extensively, so extensively that 
some of the chapters are scarcely more than a 
series of epistolary extracts bound together by 
brief but illuminating comments. Of eighteen 
pages devoted to the " Tour in Italy," less than 
four are of the author's own writing. Disraeli's 
first successful political campaign is described 
in sixteen pages, of which all but about two 
pages is composed of extracts from documents. 
Other chapters are written on the same plan. 

Whether these statements are to be regarded 
as favorable or unfavorable criticism, will de- 
pend on the purpose of the volume. Students 
of history will welcome a biography of this type, 
one that permits further study of personality, 
motives, and circumstances from the document- 
ary sources included with the narrative. On 
the other hand, the general reader is scarcely 
well served with a biography of this sort. To 
him there will always be much in letters and 
diaries that has little significance. Not knowing 
the circumstances under which they were writ- 
ten or the times that they reflect, he fails to get 
the deeper impressions that such extracts are 
intended to convey, and the reading soon be- 
comes tiresome. It is always desirable that a 
biographical narrative be flavored with bits of 
c.onten\porary writing and generously provided 
with illustrative extracts from the author's 
sources ;\but it is a question whether the practice 
has not open overdone in this particular case. 

While ihe author is sympathetic, he is not 
effusive : aU through the narrative he maintains 
a strictly juojcial attitude and writes with admir- 
able reserve. \ No attempt is made to slur over 
such episodes as reflect on Disraeli's good sense 
and judgment or to suppress information as to 
embarrassing situations. In this work for the 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



15 



first time, perhaps, do we get definite impres- 
sions of the financial distress in which the future 
chancellor of the exchequer found himself just 
before his elevation to Parliament. In 1836 
his debts almost prevented his appearance in 
public ; fears of his creditors and the officers 
of the law seem to have haunted him continu- 
ously. Writing to his lawyer concerning his 
appearance at a political dinner, he remarks : 

" I have been requested to move the principal toast, 
* The House of Lords.' I trust there is no danger of 
rny being nabbed, as this would be a fatal contretemps, 
inasmuch as, in all probability, I am addressing my 
future constituents." 

But the author also bears testimony to Disraeli's 
financial integrity ; though his embarrassments 
were numerous and frequent, "nothing that 
seriously touches his character is to be deduced 
from the records as they have been preserved." 

Travel, literature, and politics were the chief 
matters of interest to Disraeli during these 
years. His journeys in the Mediterranean lands 
and in the Orient are important chiefly as fur- 
nishing experiences that later were worked into 
his novels, though it is likely that the Oriental 
tour did much to develop in the future states- 
man the interest that he always showed in 
Eastern politics. Several of Disraeli's novels 
date from these years ; but the world has long 
ago passed judgment on his literary efforts, a 
judgment that the new court has not reversed. 
Mr. Monypenny finds that so long as the novel- 
ist is able to draw on his own experiences, he 
produces readable, often brilliant, chapters ; but 
when he has to draw on the resources of his 
imagination, the product becomes what Glad- 
stone once called " trash." 

The most satisfactory parts of the work are 
the sections dealing with Disraeli's frantic efforts 
to get into Parliament. The author makes it 
very clear that there was nothing meteoric in 
Disraeli's later appearance as an influential poli- 
tical leader. During the five years between his 
first unsuccessful candidacy at Wycombe and his 
election for Maidstone in 1837, he was regarded 
by his Tory friends (and they formed an im- 
portant group) as a coming leader. Much of 
his time and energy was given to political 
pamphleteering and editorial writing for such 
journals as the London " Morning Post " and 
" The Times." In some of this work he de- 
scended to a low literary plane. 

" The articles, which have been preserved in a book 
of cuttings, are in the strain of reckless vituperation 
which was then the fashion even in responsible journals, 
with only here and there a flash of wit or a happy 
phrase to redeem the personalities." 



But there can be no doubt that they were 
widely read. They were important also in that 
they gave the young writer an opportunity to 
review and clarify his own political ideas and to 
build up a theory of practical government that 
later became the conservative creed. 

The most important of these writings is a 
yplume of 200 pages entitled " A Vindication of 
the English Constitution." In this he develops 
the old theory that representation is, and should 
be, not a matter of numbers or territorial areas, 
but of estates. The Lords represent one estate, 
the Commons another. " The House of Com- 
mons is no more the house of the people than is 
the House of Lords." The peerage represents 
the church, the law, the counties and boroughs, 
the land, " and as the hereditary leaders of the 
nation, especially of the cultivators of the land, 
the genuine and permanent population of En- 
gland, its peasantry." 

Much is made of the ancient character of 
the House of Lords : " Their names, office, and 
character, and the ennobling achievements of 
their order must be blended with our history 
and bound up with our hereditary sentiment." 
Still, both the peerage and the commonalty must 
be democratic at the roots : it must be possible 
for any subject to gain legal admittance to 
either estate. And the estates themselves he 
conceives as " the trustees of the nation, not its 
masters." 

This defence of the peerage was written in 
1835 by a young man who three years earlier 
had sought admittance to Parliament as a radi- 
cal. There was, however, nothing very startling 
in Disraeli's early radicalism : it consisted chiefly 
in a determination to stand apart from the old 
party organizations. 

" His political stock in trade consisted, in fact, of a 
sincere and ardent patriotism, genuine popular sym- 
pathies, a strong and apparently instinctive antipathy 
to Whiggery, and an hereditary disposition to Toryism 
derived from his father with an imaginative interest in 
its romantic aspect that was native to himself." 

When he was convinced that only within one 
of the historic parties could he hope to achieve 
anything, his choice was quickly made. But he 
carried with him into the Tory camp his ideas 
of democracy and moderate reform. 

In this apparent passage from one political 
extreme to the other, his biographer sees noth- 
ing strange. He calls attention to the fact 
that nearly all the greater English statesmen 
have had ambiguous party records. 

" If we are to measure consistency by ideas, Disraeli 
is the most consistent of them all, and yet more than 



16 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1^ 



any of the others he was to suffer throughout his career 
from the reputation of political time-server and adven- 
turer acquired in these early and errant years." 

Perhaps we have in these lines a clue to the 
author's treatment of the Beaconsfield policies 
in the volumes to come. Disraeli's political 
career, as Mr. Monypenny seems to view it, is 
an effort to work out and realize in practical 
measures a system of political ideas developed 
in his younger days while he was still suspected 
of radical tendencies. 

LAURENCE M. LARSON. 



N ENGLISH ESTIMATE OF POE.* 



It is related of the Mormon Bible that when 
it was discovered it was in the unintelligible 
letters of an unknown tongue ; but that with 
it was found a pair of iron-bound spectacles, 
seen through which the strange script translated 
itself into plain English. Mr. Arthur Ransome, 
an English critic, is the fortunate possessor of 
such a magic aid for interpreting the hitherto 
misunderstood works of Edgar Allan Poe. So, 
in effect, he tells us in his brief preface, in which 
he calmly brushes aside all that has yet been 
done in England or America to make Poe clear 
to the world. When we consider that among 
those he thus disposes of are Mr. Andrew Lang, 
whose essay in the " Letters to Dead Authors " 
is the classic of Poe criticism ; Mr. Gosse, who 
twenty years ago broached the subject of Poe's 
supremacy in American literature ; Mr. Sted- 
man, who if not altogether sympathetic was 
always kindly and intelligent in his treatment 
of Poe; Mr. Aldrich, Mr. Trent, Mr. Peck, 
Mr. Didier, and many others ; it seems a large 
order for a new critic to try to fill. 

As Mr. Ransome is superior to all these 
writers, he is naturally superior to the author 
he is dealing with. Criticism is one thing, con- 
descension another. We are inclined to think 
that Poe would have preferred the foulest 
calumnies of his enemies to Mr. Ransome's 
patronizing way of waiving these aside, not 
because they are in the main untrue, but be- 
cause they really do n't matter, you know. And 
we are certain that Poe would have raged like 
the maddened Ajax at being led forward by 
the hand, so to speak, and presented to the 
world, not as a great poet, not as the supreme 
master of the short story, but as the critic 
whose wavering thought dimly glimpsed the 

* EDGAR ALLAN POE. A Critical Study. By Arthur 
Ransome. With portrait. New York : Mitchell Kennerley. 



light which has since shone forth in Walter 
Pater, Ernest Dowson, and Mr. Lascelles Aber- 
crombie, whoever the latter may be. 

About a fourth part of Mr. Ransome's book 
is taken up with long extracts from Poe's writ- 
ings. This affords one an agreeable chance to 
refresh one's memory though, really, Mr. 
Ransome's own prose is so good, that, as far 
as wording goes, it does not need such rein- 
forcement. The meaning of it is another mat- 
ter. We confess that we do not find any such 
revelations as Mr. Ransome seems to promise 
in his preface. Practically all the points he 
touches upon have been brought out by previ- 
ous writers. Poe's loneliness of mind, the an- 
tagonism between him and his countrymen, his 
mathematical and metaphysical bent, his mor- 
tuary turn of mind (as Mr. Lang terms it), 
his business ability for others, the comparative 
inferiority of " The Raven " to some of the other 
poems, the unique character of four or five of 
the colloquies and philosophical compositions, 
all this, and much else which Mr. Ransome men- 
tions, has been already fully treated. 

Mr. Ransome is hardly more than tepid in 
his praise of the Tales. He considers Poe in 
this field inferior to Balzac and an imitator of 
Lytton. To count the noses of an author's 
readers is a poor way to judge his rank, but 
influence on other writers is a pretty sure test. 
Poe has probably had twenty imitators to one 
that either of the above-named men can boast 
of. That Poe is supreme in the short story, 
and that he gained for this kind of art a place 
with the great forms of literature, is the claim 
of the true believers. 

For Poe's poetry, Mr. Ransome has more 
respect, though he thinks that many others 
since have done equally well. The bulk of 
Poe's verse is not great, but there are fifteen 
or sixteen pieces of the first rank. Shelley 
can hardly show more gems of the purest 
water, and Burns certainly not twice as many. 
Yet these two are the greatest English lyric 
poets. 

Mr. Ransome comes, in fact, to about the 
same conclusion that Mr. Brownell reaches. The 
latter began by asking what American litera- 
ture would be without Poe, and ended by declar- 
ing that Poe did not belong to literature at all. 
Mr. Ransome trips his way through Poe's works 
on tiptoe, rather holding his nose by the way ; 
and as he views piece after piece he dismisses 
it as a failure, a good intention, or a half suc- 
cess. Yet he allows that in Poe there passed 
through the world something wonderful and 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



17 



unique. This is the very folly of criticism. 
A man is not a great writer unless he writes 
something great. The bees know where there 
is honey, and the swarm of Poe's imitators is 
plain proof that his work has the secret of 
immortality. 

In reality, Mr. Ransome's sole interest in 
Poe is in the criticism. He fastens upon Poe's 
definition of poetry as the rhythmical creation of 
beauty, and on the many dicta in which Poe 
proclaims beauty as the end and aim of art. 
Mr. Ransome finds these opinions in consonance 
with his own views, and with those of the new- 
est school of art thought ; and he hails Poe as 
an early prophet. We believe that Poe's 
criticism was false, but that his work trans- 
cended his theory. Mr. Ransome praises him 
for his bad doctrine, and puts aside the saving 
deed. 

It is impossible to give any precise definition 
of beauty. We all know that when we use this 
word in common parlance we do not mean power, 
or grandeur, or sublimity, or awfulness, or 
horror, or ugliness, or the grotesque and comical. 
Yet all these things are sensations of the mind ; 
they all enter into the creations of art. Why 
anyone should want to reduce all these fractions 
of thought and feeling to a common denominator 
and call that beauty, is a mystery I have never 
been able to fathom. The Greeks in their best 
estate did pretty well in literature, but they 
were guided by no such idea. Aristotle, the 
first and greatest literary critic, knows nothing 
of it. Plato possibly glimpsed such a concep- 
tion as coming, which may in part explain his 
hostility to poetry. Come the conception did, 
but not until Greek life and Greek art lay in 
ruins together. The great German critics, 
Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller, accept no such 
narrow limitations of literature. They knew 
the complexity of life, and of art's consequent 
report of it, and they allowed many elements 
and aims to poetry. 

In the house of art there are many mansions. 
That of beauty, however attractive, is not the 
greatest or the most important. Is the Book 
of Job great poetry? What possible beauty is 
there in the spectacle of the patriarch, bowed 
down with misfortunes, covered with sores, sit- 
ting on a dunghiJl exposed to the mosquito-like 
boring of his comforters ? What beauty, in any 
sane sense of the word, is there even in the 
tremendous and appalling utterance of the 
Almighty in answer to Job's cries ? Is " King 
Lear" great poetry? There is beauty in the 
apparition of Cordelia, and by stretching the 



meaning of the word we may possibly make it 
cover the devotion of Kent and the fortitude of 
Edgar. But all the rest of the play is a whirl- 
wind of horror and terror and desolation. 

Surely the critics who preach the doctrine 
that beauty is the sole aim and end of art do 
art and literature the greatest disservice. The 
world regards them as Alceste regarded Oronte, 
or" as Hotspur did the perfumed courtier who 
recommended spermaceti for an inward wound. 
No one has fought longer or more fiercely 
against the domination of the didactic in litera- 
ture, the cult of the commonplace, than the 
present writer. But if it is a question between 
the rule of these things and the reign of the 
Precieuses, I should not hesitate in my choice. 
My attitude of mind would be like that of the 
outspoken lady confronted by the statue in 
the Vatican : " So that is the Apollo Belve- 
dere, is it? Well, what I say is, give me 
Ruggles!" 

If what our new critics mean by their creed 
of beauty is merely workmanlike, adequate, and 
perfect execution, then there may be something 
said for the doctrine. In ordinary speech we 
use the word "beauty" loosely. We say that a 
street-sweeper cleans a crossing, or a laundress 
does up linen, or a surgeon performs an opera- 
tion, beautifully. What we mean is that they 
do their tasks as well as they can be done ; that 
they do them perfectly. The authors of the 
Book of Job and of " King Lear " also did their 
tasks perfectly. They gave the ultimate ex- 
pression to the terrors and profundities with 
which they deal. But if this is the meaning of 
the creed, it is only a truism ; for unless a work 
of art is adequately done it had better not be 
done at all. And there are so many kinds of 
adequacy that the word " beauty " is the most 
unfortunate nomenclature that could be applied 
to them. The prose of Swift or Defoe is just 
as adequate for the purposes for which it is 
used as the prose of Shakespeare or Congreve 
or De Quincey or Pater. Pope has in his verse 
as brilliant an instrument for what he wants to 
do as Poe has in his. But Poe certainly would 
not have called Pope's poetry the rhythmical 
creation of beauty. Yet in the mind of Mr. 
Ransome, and critics like him, there hovers an 
idea other than mere adequacy the idea of 
absolute beauty, the something different from 
power or horror or ugliness, as the aim and 
end of art. 

Mr. Ransome of course approves Poe's di- 
alectic against long poems. The same examples 
that served me above may answer here. The 



18 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



Book of Job and " King Lear " are works of con- 
siderable dimensions. They are certainly not 
what Poe meant by a short poem. But just as 
certainly they are not collections of distinct and 
separate episodes. Each is unitary. Every 
word in them goes to build up a great effect, 
create one tremendous impression. And this 
impression, whether we read the pieces at a 
single sitting or not, is overwhelming. The 
same is true of still longer works like the Iliad 
or the Divine Comedy. The impression, indeed, 
of such works stamps itself on whole nations 
and ages. The Ramayana is four or five times 
as long as the Iliad, and the Mahabharata three 
times longer still ; yet it may be said of these 
poems, not that India possesses them, but that 
they possess India. That the inequalities in a 
long work are more apparent than those of 
a short poem, is of course to be expected. 
But few indeed are the lyrics of the world 
which are of even and perfect execution 
throughout. Under the microscope the razor's 
edge is a saw. 

Last of all, Mr. Ransome praises Poe's study 
of versification. As this is based on the idea 
of quantity, and as quantity does not exist, or 
exists only in a weak and limited manner, in 
English poetry, it is difficult to accept either 
Poe's text or Mr. Ransome's comment as of 
much value. 

The age of littleness is on us. Among the 
newest critics, of whom I should say Mr. Ran- 
some must be quite a distinguished talent, there 
is only the worship of exquisite words, charming 
cadences, lovely images. It is the culto estilo 
of Marini and Gongora over again. Mr. Ran- 
some re-states what I have seen mentioned in 
print a number of times as if it were a matter of 
some importance the fact that Ernest Dow- 
son's favorite line of poetry was Poe's 
" The viol, the violet, and the vine." 
It is a pretty line, but that Dowson should 
select it from all the splendors and ineffable 
glories of English verse, speaks volumes for 
the limitations of Dowson's mind. What Poe, 
who, however he may have erred in theory, 
reached out in practice to the boldest and most 
daring designs to the boundaries of thought 
and conception, whose aim always was to dec- 
orate his construction, not to construct his 
decoration, would have said of the attempt 
made in this book to father upon him the 
modern school of weakness, can only be con- 

CHARLES LEONARD MOORE. 



WASTE AND CONSERVATION.* 

Youth thinks all things possible ; senility 
finds the light grasshopper a load. Science 
seeks to be free from illusions and to confront 
reality. Americans have mis-read the meaning 
of nature, and have imagined soils to be inex- 
haustible, mines to be deep as China, forests 
to be positive obstacles in the way of civiliza- 
tion. As soon as industry was organized, it 
began to exploit women, girls, and children ; 
to rob the future race for present profit ; to 
squeeze the life out of vigorous immigrants in 
a single generation, and to cast degenerates 
and alcoholics into insane asylums or the grave. 
This was the folly of uiiinstructed youth, heed- 
less of remote consequences, myopic to all but 
immediate profits. The habit of waste runs 
through all conduct ; the reckless abuse of coal 
and timber and soil confuses man's judgment 
about himself; the spendthrift, while he is 
scattering his miserly and unscrupulous father's 
wealth, is squandering his own nerves and 
blood. 

There are numerous indications of the coming 
of more mature and more scientific and sober 
consideration of natural resources, things, and 
men. Some sources of evidence are suggested 
in the volume entitled "The Conservation of 
Natural Resources in the United States," by 
the President of Wisconsin University, who is 
a distinguished representative of science, and a 
man of vision and of patriotism. One can fol- 
low such a guide with confidence ; his warnings 
are clothed in exact statistical form ; his coun- 
sels are all the more likely to be heeded because 
they are deliberate and expert, and point out 
at each step the best known methods of re- 
covering losses and avoiding future waste. He 
does not scold or declaim ; he teaches convinc- 
ingly. 

Thus to conserve our limited supply of coal, 
which, once used, is gone forever, the author 
recommends not only better technical methods 
of mining, but legislation regulating the forms 
of leases and the basis of royalties. If the 
prices are exorbitant, Congress has power 
to regulate them ; the people are defenceless 
only while they remain ignorant and supine. 

*THK CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE 
UNITED STATES. By Charles Richard Van Hise. New 
York : The Macmillan Co. 

THE FIGHT FOR CONSERVATION. By Gifford Pinchot. 
New York : Douhleday, Page <fe Co. 

THE CONSERVATION OF WATER. By John L. Mathews. 
Boston : Small, Maynard & Co. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



19 



Monopolies are powerful, but government is 
supreme ; a reasonable profit is necessary to 
encourage production, while robbery of the 
people can be prevented. 

When the disastrous consequences of forest 
fires are portrayed, the reader is not left in 
gloom. He is told that under government 
ownership mountain- sides may be made to 
return profits on planted trees : that a forest 
patrol saves vastly more than it costs ; that 
waste branches can be utilized for firewood, 
pulp, and chemical products ; that a gradual 
change in the tax law would remove the motive 
of forest owners to destroy the timber at once 
and leave the permanent property for their own 
families. After demonstrating to the prosper- 
ous farmer that he is robbing his heirs by im- 
poverishing the soil, he is taught how erosion 
may be diminished by a curved furrow ; how 
nitrogen can be extracted from the air and 
transformed into plant-food ; how potassium 
may be procured when it is lacking ; and how 
phosphorous is lost and won. Then, when, 
with ample and exact learning, the author has 
pointed out the blunders of waste and the 
methods of wise economy, he passes to the in- 
terpretation of ultimate values. Conservation 
reduces the expenditure of human energy, it- 
self strictly limited in amount, upon mere sub- 
sistence, and thus leaves time and power free 
for intellectual and spiritual activities, satis- 
factions, and development. A true scheme of 
conservation includes the application of sci- 
entific and preventive medicine to the task of 
prolonging human life and raising its quality. 
Narrow and selfish individualism is no longer 
adequate ; egoistic exploitation of many by a 
few is national bankruptcy. Posterity has 
claims upon us. The criterion of right, justice, 
law, is the permanent welfare of the race. A 
new and larger creed is now formulated by the 
conservation conferences. 

The argument of Mr. Pinchot's volume on 
" The Fight for Conservation " is political, 
economical, and patriotic. It asserts that the 
chief danger to our civilization lies in the at- 
tempt of great corporations to monopolize the 
rapidly vanishing forests, mines, pasture lands, 
and especially the water-power. It is certainly 
an earnest and eloquent appeal, and there are 
many facts which give it plausibility. The 
conclusion, however, is reached without any 
elaborate array of facts from the author's own 
special scientific storehouse, and by a method 
of which economists rather than physicists are 
the more competent judges. One would not 



turn to this little volume for information about 
the scientific aspects of conservation of forests 
and mines, startling as are some of its illustra- 
tions of national wastefulness and recklessness. 

A very attractive picture of the theory of 
national and state conservation policies is found 
in " The Conservation of Water," by Mr. John 
L. " Mathews ; but more topics are covered 
than the title indicates. Beginning with the 
" water farm," or storage of water near the 
head waters of streams, we travel on through 
the processes of swamp drainage, irrigation, the 
development of power, the revetment of the 
bank, the purification of rivers, the establish- 
ment of navigation, the conservation of the soil. 
The result promised is a splendid Utopia. The 
political philosophy is the same as that of the 
volumes by Dr. Van Hise and Mr. Pinchot, 
national and state control of the natural sources 
of power and fertility in the interest of the 
nation. 

For many years the scientific men employed 
by the Federal and State governments, by 
universities and by corporations, have been 
exploring and measuring the resources of the 
country mines, forests, water, soil. For years 
their discoveries were hidden in museums and 
offices ; their words of warning were apparently 
unheeded. But the facts were on record. Men 
of business studied them and turned them to 
private account ; they acquired title and legal 
claim to use the national wealth as they pleased; 
and the popular ethical creed offered no hin- 
drance to their policy. If it is a race in which 
every man is for himself, then who can blame 
the swiftest and strongest and most cunning if 
he grasps the lion's share ? But science is not 
the tool of a clique ; it belongs to humanity, 
and soon or late its service will be offered to all. 
Since the politicians have found that the con- 
clusions of science are popular war-cries there 
is danger that the careful students of nature 
who first made this movement possible may 
be ungratefully forgotten and their advice be 
ignored. The books here called to notice will 
help to prevent this danger of f orgetf ulness and 
neglect of competent guides. 

CHAKLES RICHMOND HENDERSON. 



THE LATE Arthur J. Butler is responsible for a vol- 
ume now published by Mr. Henry Frowde, and entitled 
" The Forerunners of Dante," being a volume of selec- 
tions from the Italian poetry of the thirteenth century. 
Some thirty poets are represented, and a considerable 
body of notes elucidates the obscurities of the text. 
There is also a preface of much value. 



20 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 
_ ^ .. More and more perfectly and satis- 

Reflections . \ , ' . , 

of a hermit- f actonly is Mr. Arthur Christopher 
philosopher. Benson finding himself in that rural 
solitude which he has chosen for his reflective ma- 
turity after having, as he says "lived laboriously and 
hastily for twenty years " in populous towns and 
among strenuous toilers. " The Silent Isle " (Put- 
nam) contains the latest instalment of those quietly 
delightful meditations and reminiscences and miscel- 
laneous observations with which for nearly a decade 
he has been enriching our literature and winning an 
ever-increasing audience of appreciative listeners. 
His strength lies in the perfect frankness and sim- 
plicity with which he opens his mind and heart to his 
readers. "Here I stand, I can do no otherwise," 
he seems to say to them. Planting himself in- 
domitably on his instincts, and there abiding, he is 
making at least a part of the huge world come 
round to him, as Emerson declares that it always will 
to the man having the courage of his convictions. 
The present volume, Mr. Benson explains in an 
Introduction, " is an attempt, or rather a hundred 
attempts, to sketch some of the details of life, seen 
from a simple plane enough, and with no desire to 
conform it to a theory, or to find anything very 
definite in it, or to omit anything because it did not 
fit in with prejudices or predilections." The quiet 
mode of life he has chosen for himself in a retired 
spot which he rather fancifully likens to an island, 
was not adopted, he declares, in any attempt to 
shirk his fair share of the natural human burden ; 
but feeling that he had borne an unprofitable load 
long enough, and that it was high time to let down 
the pack and untie it and see what it contained, he 
discovered that its contents were mostly designed, 
like the furniture of the White Knight's horse in 
"Through the Looking-Glass," to provide against 
unlikely contingencies. And so he concluded that 
he might live life, of the brevity and frailty of 
which he had become suddenly aware, on simpler 
and more rational lines. How he has been doing 
this and hopes still to do it, the subsequent pages of 
the book very entertainingly set forth. Apposite 
anecdote and illustration, passing reminiscence and 
pertinent reflection, with here and there a touch of 
quiet humor or gentle sarcasm, enrich and adorn the 
pages and beguile the reader from chapter to chap- 
ter until, all too soon, the end is reached. But it is 
a book that one can turn back and read over again 
with little or no decrease of zest. 



Studies in the 

Psychology 
of Religion. 



The psychological study of the 

*. J . J 

expressions of the religious impulse 
b^jg f a j r t o become an American 
specialty. The " Varieties of Religious Experience " 
of our master psychologist, James, brought its re- 
cognition to scholarly and popular attention abroad 
and at home. The emphasis of variety and the 
contrast of experience drew attention from trees to 



forest. The vigor, tolerance, independence and 
unconvention of American and Americanized ex- 
pressions of religion furnished the abundant material 
and the panoramic outlook. Starbuck, Coe, Pratt, 
King, and others, have contributed specifically, and 
other psychologists such as Stanley Hall, Dewey, 
Royce generically, to the consummation of the 
American position. To these is now added " The 
Psychology of Religious Experience." (Houghton), 
by Professor E. S. Ames of Chicago. The work 
forms a notable addition to the literature and to the 
statement of the position. It may be recommended 
as an inviting and satisfying approach to the gen- 
eral field. The volume is distinctive in its combin- 
ation of an anthropological survey the clues 
afforded by custom, magic, spirits, sacrifice, myth 
with a survey of the developmental sequences in 
the individual, the religion of childhood, adoles- 
cence, and the normal adult reactions ; and an 
analysis of the vicissitudes of religious experiences 
in their social and historical settings. The domi- 
nant conception is that of religion as a sense of 
intimate social obligation, an enlargement of the 
outlook and activities, and an enhancement of life's 
values through sacrifice in favor of non-personal 
though not depersonalized ends. Whether the 
direction of attitude, contemplation, fervor, service, 
restraint, is of one kind or another, whether 
enforced and directed by one set of conditions or 
another, whether drawn from its orbit by the em- 
phasis of events or distorted by anomaly, fanati- 
cism, or dogma, to unusual contours, the essential 
conformity of the varied expressions to the satisfac- 
tions of fundamentally analogous needs persists. It 
emerges plainly, in so far as we look away from 
the exaggerations and irrelevancies of sect and 
schism and heresy, or construe their more legitimate 
expression as but differentiations of conventionalized 
social appeal to different classes or temperaments, 
and avoid the confusion of pietistic and unquestion- 
ing conformity to dessicated ritual with significant 
religious impressibility. " Getting religion " proves 
to be so differently significant from maturing 
religiously. In the end, and conspicuous in the 
immediate horizon, such forces as democracy and 
science, and the illumination of cultural sensibility 
and humane tolerance, determine and measure 
religious attitudes ; and the normal exemplar of 
future society will be more wholly and consistently 
religious, when the channels of his religious expres- 
sions shall be adjusted more nearly than the present 
traditional stage makes possible, to the consumma- 
tion to be effected by the radical alteration of the 
social and industrial life. The transient inconsist- 
encies of preaching and practice are inevitably 
misleading. The wider and deeper survey of the 
religious life directs the view to essentials, and 
clarifies the perspective of interpretation. Pro- 
fessor Ames's volume is a stimulating and reassur- 
ing aid to the performance of this service for the 
sympathetic and progressive idealist. 



1911.] 



THE DIAI, 



21 



Thediarvof romance of adventure, the joy 
a daughter of of young love, the sweetness of friend- 
the Confederacy. s hi p> an( j the horror of war are all 
depicted in the pages of an absorbing little book that 
can be read through, without haste, in a sitting, 
" The Diary of a Refugee " (Moffat, Yard & Co.). 
Mrs. Frances Fearn, editor of this vivid chronicle 
of stirring events (which she has also dramatized 
under the title, "Let us Have Peace "), explains in 
an Introduction that the Diary is of her mother's 
writing and is only now made public in response to 
an appeal from a historical society for the bringing 
to light of any material bearing on the Civil War. 
The writer was the wife of a Louisiana planter who 
with his family was driven by the advance of the 
Federal forces in 1862 to take refuge first in Texas, 
then in Havana, and soon afterward in Europe. 
The history of hardships endured, and of the loss 
of loved ones in the war, is relieved by incidents of 
a romantic or chivalrous or amorous description, in 
which a beautiful daughter Clarice is the heroine. 
A near view of life in Paris under the Empire is 
also afforded, and we read how the fair Clarice at- 
tracted such attention from the Emperor that her 
mother felt it necessary to carry her off to London 
until the imperial ardor should cool. General Grant, 
a kinsman of the family, is made to appear in an 
attractive light and to show the family characteristic, 
kindness. Lincoln too is introduced, on the occasion 
of his assassination, and that tragedy is frankly ad- 
mitted to be " the greatest misfortune " and " more 
disastrous in its effects upon the South than any- 
thing that could have happened." Mrs. Fearn has 
well performed her editorial duties (even though at 
the outset she makes "data" a singular noun), fill- 
ing in sundry gaps in this old journal and making 
it into a book well worth reading and of real his- 
toric value. A few family and other portraits are 
given, as also several drawings by Miss Rosalie 
Urquhart. Admiral Dewey, in a commendatory 
letter printed in the Introduction, acts as sponsor 
to the book. 

A journalistic Mr - Edwin E. Slosson's book on 
treatment of " Great American Universities " 
Universities. (Macmillan) must not be taken too 
seriously. When the several articles appeared in 
" The Independent," they attracted local and general 
interest, of the kind that makes for publicity. In 
a book of 500 pages, with appropriate introduction 
and conclusion, the result invites other and more 
critical standards than attend its reception by casual 
readers. Doubtless universities must be content to 
be subjects for (or invite) journalistic treatment ; 
and Mr. Slosson's review of fourteen of the large 
universities embodies considerable information in 
regard to them, statistical, critical, biographical, 
administrative, and miscellaneous. Nor can it be 
urged that the space is devoted to externals only ; 
they figure unduly but naturally. Yet an earnest 
attempt is made to set forth inner tendencies, and 
reflect local color and college spirit. The articles 



made good journalism, and, indeed, a high order 
of journalism, as such things go. As educational 
criticism, to which the volume pretends, it will per- 
form some service and perhaps as much disservice. It 
will help many to get a far better idea of the univer- 
sities described than they could or would otherwise 
secure ; and it will prevent some from getting a true 
conception of the real American university, and de- 
bar them hopelessly from a like understanding of the 
ideal one. A university is a complicated machine ; 
but when you describe it as such, particularly to the 
non-mechanical, you create an illusive impression that 
they understand it ; and you have distracted atten- 
tion from the far more important fact that a university 
is something other than a complicated machine. To 
this distorted perspective, Mr. Slosson's straining 
for journalistic effect adds a needless touch of bur- 
lesque. It varies from good-humored banter to very 
bad taste. It affords illumination ; but it suggests 
the glare of the footlights, not of the lamp of learn- 
ing. It is hoped that the public seriously interested 
in universities will not take the volume for more than 
a sheaf of impressions. This should be done in fair- 
ness to Mr. Slosson and to the universities. One 
may have misgivings concerning the discernment of 
the general reader. If so, one may find consolation 
in the reflection that it shows well for American 
universities, that even the skilful photographer does 
not find on his films the features worthy of record. 
These are reserved for the artist-painter. 

An A merican't ^ ne minister of the Am erican Church 
impressions in Berlin has many unusual oppor- 
of Berlin. tunities to see both the public and 

the private life of the Kaiser's Capital at first 
hand, and could hardly fail to make an interesting 
book of his record of a twelve years' residence. Dr. 
Dickie is almost as inveterate a story-teller as Dr. 
Depew ; and by dint of telling not only his own 
experiences but the stories that have been told to 
him, and stories that he has elsewhere heard of 
those whom he has casually met, he has brought 
together an interesting collection. Add to these some 
really first-hand observations regarding the condi- 
tions of living abroad as, for instance, the oppor- 
tunities and the dangers of unattended girls and 
we have the best features of the book. The chapters 
on Stoecker, Harnack. Pfleiderer, Curtius, Hermann 
Grimm, Rahel and Henriette Herz, are of very un- 
equal value, on the whole promising more than they 
yield, and sometimes strangely empty or wandering. 
The last two, of course, can be little else than trans- 
lation, and the translation is sometimes lame. The 
good clergyman's breathless reverence for royalties, 
who are never introduced without two or more cap- 
itals, is almost unpleasant when in the presence of the 
imperial family. The Emperor's eye "beams and 
glows and glistens as no other eye can into which 
I have been permitted to look." The Empress is 
" that noblest of all women." And neither of them 
appears but Dr. Dickie comes to " attention " with 
his hat off. But one can forgive this when he knows 



22 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



that the Emperor has been very nice to Dr. Dickie, 
even permitting him to copy into the book one of 
his own sermons, and, still more gracious, one of his 
prayers. And with all his projecting personality, 
one cannot deny geniality and some charm to the 
author. (Dodd, Mead & Co.) 

. The small fisherman of the English 

the 'longshore coast (the South Devon coast, ap- 
ftsherman. parently) is painted to the life in 

Mr. Stephen Reynolds's " Alongshore : Where Man 
and the Sea Face One Another" ( Macmillan). It is 
a book to be read and pondered by those of whom 
the Devonshire fishermen scornfully say, with not a 
little truth, "The likes o' they can't tell what the 
likes o' us got to contend wi,' nor never won't." 
Mr. Reynolds, by taking a hand in the work of these 
toilers of the sea and by sharing their hardships, 
has fitted himself to write understandingly of them, 
and he has the artistic temperament necessary to 
impart something of ideal beauty to the hard real- 
ities of 'longshore fishing, where a shifting beach, 
scanty resources and other adverse conditions com- 
bine to make life a very serious matter to the dimin- 
ishing remnant of a hardy and once numerous 
class. The organization of industry and the spread 
of modern commercial methods have dealt unkindly 
with the small fisherman, whose total extinction is 
feared and deprecated by Mr. Reynolds. Valuable 
suggestions for the improvement of his lot are made 
by the author, especially in an appended article 
reprinted from the London " Daily News " and en- 
titled "Small Holdings on the Sea." A small and 
inexpensive motor boat, of ingenious construction 
and of tested serviceability in 'longhore fishing, 
where all boats have to be beached every night, is 
described as offering " some chance, at all events, of 
arresting the otherwise almost hopeless and wholly 
deplorable decline in small fishing." Character 
sketches, amusing or otherwise interesting incidents, 
fishermen's yarns, abundance of snappy dialogue 
in quaint but easily intelligible dialect, with other 
pleasing features, including half-tone reproductions 
of photographs (rather misleadingly described on the 
title-page as "illustrations by Melville Mackay"), 
contribute to the attractiveness of the book. 



Sketches of men Few Northerners, and probably also 
and manners in few Southerners, are now familiar 
old Virginia. with the humorous writings of Dr. 
George W. Bagby, a Virginia physician who early 
adopted the profession of letters, arid, as journalist 
and lecturer, never tired of voicing the praises of 
the Old Dominion, chiefly in the form of realistic 
sketches of characters and scenes dear to his heart. 
Some of the best of these abundant and swiftly- 
written pieces have been collected and provided with 
an introduction by Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, and 
appear in a volume entitled "The Old Virginia 
Gentleman, and Other Sketches " (Scribner). A 
portrait of Dr. Bagby, with a sketch of his life by Mr. 
Edward S. Gregory, is fittingly provided. Both Mr. 



Page and Mr. Gregory are enthusiastic in their 
praise of Dr. Bagby 's genius. " Next to Poe," de- 
clares the former, " the most original of all Virginia 
writers was he whose reputation in his lifetime 
rested mainly on humorous sketches of a mildly 
satirical and exceedingly original type, but who was 
master of a pathos rarely excelled by any author 
and rarely equalled by any American author. Like 
Poe, his work was known among his contemporaries 
merely by a small coterie of friends. But these 
adored him." " The very Dickens and Shakespeare 
of the Virginia negro " he is further styled by his 
biographer. He is certainly possessed of humor and 
pathos, of an admirable facility in the use of epithet, 
and a rich fancy in dressing out the reproduced 
characters of his well-stored memory ; while his easy 
colloquialism of style is suited to the tastes of the 
great mass of readers. Those who never tire of 
recalling the greatness and the glory of old-time Vir- 
ginia will not soon tire of Dr. Bagby's graphic pages. 

Glimpses of six While evei T "ght-minded person 
Presidents and feels only disgust at the impertinent 
their families. curiosity regarding persons that is 
fed by the current newspapers, we are all curious 
as to the personal character and home life of our 
presidents. This proper curiosity or interest is min- 
istered to by the reminiscences of Colonel William 
H. Crook, who has for forty years served in the exec- 
utive department of the White House. " Through 
Five Administrations " (Harper) shows the personal 
side of Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, 
and Arthur, with glimpses into their family life 
and the personality of their wives. Mr. Crook was 
made body-guard of President Lincoln three months 
before his assassination, and attended him every- 
where. The account of this association is interest- 
ing, but no new traits or characteristics are pre- 
sented.. Mrs. Lincoln, however, is set before us in 
a much more favorable light than by many writers 
of her time. President Johnson won the respect 
and affection of his office force; Mr. Crook's ac- 
count tallies with that of Secretary Welles in that 
respect, and the two stories of the struggle with the 
radicals and of the impeachment proceedings are 
much the same in tone. The author loved General 
Grant, and labors hard to free him from every 
suspicion of unworthy favoritism ; but he is less 
convincing here than in any other part of the book. 
The reminiscences are exceedingly interesting, and 
are valuable as side-lights on the history of the time. 

. , Mr. Walter G. Shotwell's new life 

A ponderous 

biography of a of Charles oumner (Crow ell) lias 
great personality. faQ me rit of being a serious attempt 
to retell the story of the quarter-century that saw 
the Civil War come on and the tremendously im- 
portant events that followed that war, all gathered 
about Sumner as the central figure. In those years 
of excitement and passion, Sumner was one of the 
greatest figures ; and it is important that he should 
be more than a name to us of these later times and 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



23 



quieter days. The work shows an earnest purpose, 
and contains much that is valuable ; yet its defects 
are obvious. It contains more than seven hundred 
large and closely printed pages that are trying to 
the eyes of the reader ; and it is overloaded with 
detail, making the reading a matter of time and 
effort. The author's style is not attractive, and he 
has introduced moralizings and many matters but 
loosely connected with Sumner's life and work. 
The treatment is from what may be called the 
traditional New England point of view ; no trace 
appears of the new light shed on the characters 
and events by recent material. For example, it is 
the old Stanton and the old Andrew Johnson that 
we see in these pages, as well as the old motives 
and the old judgments with which contemporary 
writings were filled. The Sumner here portrayed 
is a demigod ; the author sees no failings in him. 
In spite of these drawbacks, the book is interesting, 
for no careful narrative of these years of storm and 
stress can lack interest, and the great personality 
of Charles Snmner will always command attention. 

For the student who is not especially 
concerned with the discussion as to 
the meaning of Shakespeare's words, 
but wishes to know the meaning in as direct and 
simple a manner as possible, Mr. R. J. Cunliffe's 
" New Shakespearean Dictionary " (Scribner) will 
be a very useful handbook. It is much less bulky 
than Schmidt, even less so than Littleton's Dyce ; 
and yet it gives all that the student needs to 
know about the words whose meanings are un- 
familiar to him. Thus, to take an illustrative ex- 
ample, "Lebanon" is disposed of thus: "Identified 
variously, and quite uncertainly, with ebony (which 
does not appear to be poisonous), henbane, and yew." 
Then follows the quotation from " Hamlet." Little- 
ton discusses the various interpretations to the extent 
of half a page, and does not enlighten the general 
reader to any greater extent. The work aims to treat 
all words which are not part of the modern lan- 
guage ; this is done by means of succinct definitions 
and illustrative quotations, limited in the case of 
frequent occurrence to three or four. The author 
has been able to make use of the splendid work of 
the New English Dictionary, and thus to put within 
easy reach the results of its exact scholarship. 



BiRIEFER MENTION. 



A " Historical French Reader," by M. Felix Weill, 
is pu Wished by the American Book Co., who also send 
us " Easy Standard French," edited by Dr. Victor E. 
Francois, and a volume of tales by modern German 
writers, " Ernstes und Heiteres," edited by Fraulein 
Josepha Schrakamp. These three little books all have 
notes and vocabularies. 

"A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied 
Subjects " is a bibliography published by Harvard 
University, and compiled by a group of twenty-three 



instructors in that institution. It is a work of the 
highest authority, and its contents are so classified as 
to make it a reference work of great value. There are 
upwards of fifty special topics, each of which has been 
undertaken by a specialist in the field of its own pecu- 
liar literature. 

A group of recent " Oxford " reprints, published by 
Mr. Henry Frowde, includes the following: " Traherne's 
Poems of Felicity," edited by Mr. H. I. Bell; " Shelley's 
Prose in the Bodleian Manuscripts," edited by Mr. A. 
H. Eoszal; Tennyson's "The Princess," edited by Mr. 
Henry Allsopp; and "Tennyson: Fifty Poems, 1830- 
1864," edited by Mr. J. H. Lobban. 

In "The Poems of Eugene Field" (Scribner) the 
publishers have for the first time brought together in a 
single volume the entire verse output of that prolific 
and popular writer. No less than thirteen scattered 
and previously copyrighted volumes have been drawn 
upon for the purpose of bringing all these pieces within 
a single pair of covers. There are over five hundred 
pages of text. 

Students of Dryden have now their choice between 
two carefully-edited and scholarly editions of his poems. 
Of the " Cambridge " text, edited by Dr. George Noyes, 
we spoke some weeks ago, and we now mention the 
appearance of an " Oxford " text, edited by Mr. John 
Sargeaunt, and published by Mr. Henry Frowde. It 
is a volume of six hundred two-columned pages, with a 
brief introduction, and only a few notes. 

Professor George R. Noyes has edited, and Messrs. 
Scott, Foresman & Co. have published, a volume of 
the " Selected Dramas of John Dryden," to which is 
added Buckingham's "The Rehearsal." The Dryden 
plays included are " The Conquest of Granada by the 
Spaniards," " Marriage la Mode," " All for Love," 
and " The Spanish Friar." An extensive critical ap- 
paratus is provided, including voluminous notes. 

Mr. Henry S. Pancoast's "Introduction to English 
Literature " has long been esteemed as one of the best 
of our elementary text-books. It is now followed by a 
somewhat simple manual, designed for younger stu- 
dents, and entitled " A First Book in English Litera- 
ture." In the preparation of this work, which is 
published by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., the author has 
had the assistance of Mr. Percy Van Dyke Shelly. 

"Plutarch's Cimon and Pericles," newly translated 
by Professor Bernadotte Perrin, and supplied with an 
extensive critical apparatus, is published by Messrs. 
Scribner's Sons. The volume is a successor to the 
similarly-planned " Themistocles and Aristides " of 
nine years ago, and is to be followed by a " Nicias and 
Alcibiades," thus presenting the Greek history of the 
fifth century B. c. as illustrated by six of its foremost 
personalities. 

Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, they make a tempt- 
ing trio to read about, especially when we are permitted 
to view them under the philosophical guidance of Pro- 
fessor George Santayana. " Three Philosophical Poets " 
is the title of the volume, which is published by Har- 
vard University, and is the" initial volume of a series of 
" Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature." We 
shall look forward with interest to the further volumes 
of a series so happily begun. 

Professor R. D. Salisbury's "Elementary Physiog- 
raphy " (Holt) has been prepared by the method which 
Freeman used in writing his smallest history of the 



24 



DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



Norman Conquest. That is, a very big book was first 
written (the " Physiography " in the " American Science 
Series"), then a smaller "Physiography for High 
Schools," and last of all, the present work, designed to 
give a student about half as much to do as its immediate 
predecessor. Such a method is pretty sure to produce 
a good text-book, and there is no better of its scope, 
and for its purpose, than the one now briefly described. 

The American Unitarian Association has undertaken 
the publication, in a uniform series, of the popular 
writings of President David Starr Jordan upon social 
and ethical themes. There are now eleven small 
volumes in the series, the latest issues being " Ulrich 
von Hutten " and " The Call of the Nation." Dr. 
Jordan is a virile and impressive writer, and what he 
has to say, either on the lecture platform or in the 
present printed form, makes strongly for righteousness. 

" A Dictionary of the Characters in the Waverley 
Novels of Sir Walter Scott " (Dutton), by Mr. M. F. A. 
Husband, is a work of reference prepared "for the 
humanist who sees in Scott a noble nature worthy of 
closer acquaintance." The world of Scott's creation (in 
the novels alone) includes no less than 2836 characters 
(seventy of them being horses and dogs), and all of 
these are here indexed and briefly described. A com- 
panion volume is " A Thackeray Dictionary," compiled 
by Messrs. Isadore Gilbert Mudge and M. Earl Sears. 
The number of entries is not specified, but it seems to 
be about equal to the number in the Scott volume. 

A German text of unusual interest and importance 
is provided by Professor William Guild Howard in a 
volume of selections entitled " Laokoon " (Holt). The 
text includes the " Laokoon " itself, of course, together 
with Lessing's " Entwiirfe zum Laokoon," and besides 
these Goethe's essay on the subject and Herder's 
"Erstes Kritisches Waldchen." The editorial matter 
is very extensive, including ten essays upon special 
themes, and an elaborate commentary and bibliography. 
From the same publishers we have other German texts 
as follows: Ludwig's "Der Erbforster," edited by D. 
Morton C. Stewart; Gutzkow's " Uriel Acosta," edited 
by Professors S. W. Cutting and A. C. von Noe"; Storm's 
" Auf der Universitat," edited by Mr. Robert N. Cor win ; 
and Herr Ludwig Fulda's " Der Duinmkopf," edited by 
Professor William Kilborne Stewart. 

Part V., Section 3, of Mr. Dana's "Modern American 
Library Economy as Illustrated by the Newark, N. J., 
Free Public Library " (Elm Tree Press, Newark) is 
devoted to " The Picture Collection " and is from Mr. 
Dana's own pen. As usual, there are diagrams and 
half-tone illustrations to make the text as clear as pos- 
sible. The selection, mounting, filing, exhibiting, and 
lending of the Newark collection of pictures, numbering 
now about one hundred thousand, are lucidly described. 
A subsequent Part (XL) of the work will take up the 
art department proper, with its thousand or more bound 
volumes and its large collection of engravings, litho- 
graphs, and other prints. One concluding remark: 
Noticeable in our library literature is the increasing 
use of " she " and " her " as the pronoun of common 
gender. For instance, Mr. Dana writes: "The person 
in charge is always ready to give assistance to any one 
who seems to have difficulty in locating the material 
she wants." Why not " the desired material "? or 
even " the material he wants "? Are library-users, like 
church-goers, becoming confined to the weaker sex ? 



A new Supplement to the " Dictionary of National 
Biography " is now in preparation. It will deal ex- 
clusively with persons who have died since the death 
of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, up to the end 
of 1910, and will be prepared under the editorship of 
Mr. Sidney Lee. 

With the appearance of the " Political Science 
Quarterly " for December, 1910, this scholarly and 
authoritative review completes its twenty-fifth year of 
existence. The one hundredth number, like the first, 
appears under the managing editorship of Professor 
Munroe Smith, of Columbia University. 

"What Diantha Did," a novel by Mrs. Charlotte 
Perkins Gilman, will be issued immediately by the 
Charlton Co., of New York. This is Mrs. Gilman's first 
novel, and in it she will show the practical working- 
out of the theories regarding the solution of the house- 
keeping problem which she has already made familiar 
to the public through her previous books, " Women 
and Economics " and " The Home." 

Mr. Burton E. Stevenson is arranging for Messrs. 
Henry Holt & Co. a collection of English and Ameri- 
can verse, in which, while standard poems will be 
prominent, unusual emphasis will be laid upon the work 
of contemporary American writers and upon the lighter 
forms of verse. Mr. Stevenson is especially desirous 
of preserving in authentic form the many fugitive 
poems which everyone admires, but no one can find 
when he wants them, and will welcome any suggestions 
as to possible inclusions. 

The Summer School of Harvard University announces 
an interesting innovation in the teaching of Fine Arts, 
namely, a course on Turner and the landscape painting 
of his time to be given in London next summer by 
Professor Pope. The course will begin on July 5, and 
end on August 15, and will be open to women as well as 
men. It will be conducted by means of lectures, con- 
ferences, visits to galleries, and reports. The chief aim 
will be a study of the works of Turner in the galleries 
in and near London, together with a study of his en- 
vironment and development, in order to learn as much 
as possible of the mental processes involved in the pro- 
duction of great imaginative works of art. Persons 
intending to take this course must enroll before June 1, 
1911. Further information may be obtained by ad- 
dressing the instructor, Professor Arthur Pope, 6 Buck- 
ingham Place, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press have 
undertaken, on the completion of the " Cambridge 
Modern History," to publish a comprehensive history 
of medieval times, drawn up on similar lines. The work 
will appear in eight volumes, and will cover the period 
from Constantine to the close of the Middle Ages. 
The principles which have guided the conception of 
this work are those laid down by the late Lord Acton 
for the " Cambridge Modern History," though experi- 
ence has suggested some improvements of detail in the 
mode of carrying these principles out. The scheme for 
the work was laid down by Mr. J. B. Bury, Lord 
Acton's successor as Regius Professor of Modern His- 
tory. The editorship has been entrusted to the Rev. 
H. M. Gwatkin, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical His- 
tory in the University of Cambridge, and the Rev. J. 
P. Whitney, of King's College, Cambridge, Professor of 
Ecclesiastical History in King's College, London. The 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



25 



work is intended to cover the entire field of European 
medieval history and in every chapter to sum up recent 
research upon the subject. Foreign specialists as well 
as English have given their assistance; America, 
France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, and Hungary 
are represented in the list of contributors. The first 
volume, which deals with the period of the Fall of the 
Roman Empire in the West, will be ready about Easter 
1911, and will be followed, it is hoped, by two volumes 
in each year. The volumes will be published in chron- 
ological order. A full bibliography is added to every 
chapter, and, where necessary, footnotes to the text are 
admitted. A portfolio of illustrative maps, specially 
prepared for the present work, will be published with 
each volume. 



TOPICS r>f LEADING PERIODICALS. 

January, 1911. 



AgricultnralEdncation in France. A.F. San born. World To-day. 
America, Industrial. Ten Years of. C. M. Keys. World'* Work. 
American Naval Expenditure. A. G. McClellan. Atlantic. 
American Poets, Three. Richard Le Gallienne. Forum. 
American, The First. Beverley Buchanan. World To-day. 
American Trees, Foreign-Born. Mabel Smith. Rev. of Rev* 
Arctic Prairies. The HI. Ernest Thompson Seton. Scribner 
Automobile, The, in Fire Service. H. T. Wade. Her. of Rev*'. 
Balloon " America II.," Flight of. Augustus Post. Century. 
Battleship, The New. Alfred T. Mahan. World 1 * Work. 
Brown, John, after Fifty Years. W. D. Howells. No. American. 
Child. A Crusade for the. Olivia H. Dunbar. No. American. 
China, American Trade with. Frederick McConnick. Century. 
Congressman, Troubles of the. W. D. Eakin. Lippincott. 
Corporations, The Tribute of the. A. J. Nock. American. 
Country Youth, The, in the City. E. A. Halsey. World To-day. 
Disease, Conquest of. Woods Hutchinson. World 1 * Work. 
Divorce, The Problem of. Rheta Childe Dorr, forum. 
Drama, The, and the Play. Arthur Colton. North American. 
Dunce, The Passing of the. E. J. Swift. Harper. 
Efficiency and Tariff Revision. B. Baker. Review of Review*. 
English Bible, Tercentenary of. J. Somerndike. World To-day. 
Experiences, My IV. Booker T. Tfashington. World's Work. 
Farming with Automobiles. G. E. Walsh. Review of Reviews. 
Felony. Facts of. Benjamin Coombe. World To-day. 
Fruit Industry of Northwest. S. C. Miller. World To-day. 
Furs from Far Places. E. Alexander Powell. Everybody'*. 
Gas-Engine, Children of the. Robert Sloss. World'* Work. 
Goodness, The Ignominy of. Max Eastman. Atlantic. 
Government of Law or of Men? H. H. Lurton. No. American. 
Grand Canyon. The. John Burroughs. Century. 
History. A Dramatic Decade of. W. B. Hale. World 1 * Work. 
Homer, Winslow. Christian Brinton. Scribner. 
Hotel, The Land of the. Mary Heaton Vorse. Harper. 
Human Drift, The. Jack London. Forum. 
India. On the Way to. Price Collier. Scribner. 
Ionic Greek before Homer. George Hempl. Harper. 
Iowa Plant-Breeder, An. L. H. Bailey. Century. 
Italians in the United States. Alberto Pecorini. Forum. 
Journalist, Training of the. H. W. HorwilL Atlantic. 
Lee and Davis. Gamaliel Bradford, Jr. Atlantic. 
Loeffler, The Music of. Lawrence Oilman. North American. 
London Town Planning Conference, A. J. Ihlder. Rev. of Rev*. 
Luther, Martin, and his Work. A. C. McGiffert. Century. 
Methodist Church in Italy. Archbishop Ireland. No. Amer. 
Mines, Tragedies of the. Joseph Husband. Atlantic. 
Miracles. The Subject of. W. H. Thomson. Everybody'*. 
Moliere's Birthday. Edwina S. Babcock. Atlantic. 
Mormons, The n. Frank J. Cannon. Everybody'*. 
Napoleon, An Unpublished Talk with. T. B. Richards. Harper. 
Norway, Progress in. Daniel L. Hanson. World To-day. 
Oklahoma. Ten Years of. B. F. Yoakum. World 1 * Work. 
Panama Canal, The. A. G. McLellan. North American. 
" Pelleas and Melisande." Our. Georgette Maeterlinck. Century. 
Panama, Realizing the Dream of. G. F. Anthier. Rev. of Rev*. 
Pension Carnival IV. William B. Hale. World'* Work. 
Personalities and Political Forces. A. B. Hart. No. American 
Platinum and Nickel Industries. D. T. Day. Rev. of Rev*. 
Political Corruption. Cause of. Henry Jones Ford. Scribner. 
Politics in 1911. William Allen White. American. 
Polygamy, Mormon Revival of. Burton J. Hendrick. McClure. 
Population, Ten Years' Growth in. E. Durand. World'* Work. 



Post Office, Stories of the. Catherine Cavanagh. Bookman. 
Prison Reform in America. Charles Ware. World To-day. 
Railroad Monopoly. J. Moody and G. K. Turner. McClure. 
Railroads and the People. E. P. Ripley. Atlantic. 
Reconstruction Period, Diary of XII. Gideon Welles. Atlantic. 
Russian Bookseller. Experiences of. Ivan Narodny. Bookman. 
Schoolhouse, The Social. Anne Foreythe. World To-day. 
Shognns, Last of the. Frederick Starr. World To-day. 
Short Story Famine, The. George J. Nathan. Bookman. 
Sierra. My First Summer in the. John Mnir. Atlantic. 
Socialism and Human Achievement. J. O. Pagan. Atlantic. 
Socialistic Tendencies in England, George Bourne. Forum. 
Stage Decoration, Some Ideas on. Ellen Terry. McClure. 
Stage Management, Neglect of. W. P. Eaton. American. 
Style, The Question of. Frederic Taber Cooper. Bookman. 
Sweden, The Book Arts of. William Allen. Bookman. 
Tariff-Made State, A. Ida M. Tarbell. American. 
Tariff, The Lemon in. Samuel Hopkins Adams. McClure. 
Tax Reform in California. Carl C. Plehn. Rev. of Rev*. 
Telegraph and Telephone Men. Allen T. True. Scribner. 
Tete Jaune Country, The. Cy Warman. World To^lay. 
Tolstoy at Sixty. Nadine Helbig. Bookman. 
Tolstoy. A Visit to. Jane Addams. McClure. 
Unemployment Insurance in Germany. E. Roberts, Scribner. 
United States. The, and Canada. P. T. McGrath. Rev. of Rev*. 
University, The, and American Humour. B. Hooker. Bookman. 
Western Art Exhibition, A. J. S. Dickerson. World To-day. 
Whistler and Verity. Haldane Macfall. Forum, 
Woman Suffrage, Importance of. Max Eastman. No. Amer. 
Womanhood, The Purpose of. C. W. Saleeby. Forum. 
Women, A Platform for. Rebecca Lose. Forum. 
Women of To-morrow V. William Hard. Everybody'*. 



LIST OF XEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 1S7 titles, includes books 
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES 

The Romance of a Medici Warrior: The True Story of 
Giovanni Delle Bande Nere. By Christopher Hare. 
Illustrated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo, 343 pages. 
Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.50 net. 

The Spanish Journal of Elizabeth Lady Holland. 
Edited by the Earl of Dchester. Volume m., with 
photogravure portrait, large 8vo, 437 pages. Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. $4.20 net. 

Morris Ketchum Jesup: A Character Sketch. By Will- 
iam Adams Brown. With photogravure portrait, 
large 8vo, 246 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 

Famous Importers. By Bram Stoker. Illustrated, 8vo, 
349 pages. Sturgis & Walton Co. $2. net. 

A Texas Pioneer: Early Staging and Overland Freight- 
ing Days on the Frontier of Texas and Mexico. By 
August Santleben; edited by L D. Affleck. 8vo, 321 
pages. Neale Publishing Co. $2. net. 

Secret Memoirs of the Regency: The Minority of Louis 
XV. By Charles Pinot Durlos; translated by E. 
jTiles Meras. Illustrated, 12mo, 343 pages. "Court 
Series of French Memoirs." Sturgis & Walton Co. 
$1.50 net. 

Joseph Hayden: The Story of his Life. By Franz von 
Seeburg; translated by Rev. J. M. Toohey. 12mo. 
302 pages. Notre Dame, Ind. : Ave Marie Press. $1.25. 

Leon Gordon: An Appreciation. By Abraham Benedict 
Rhine. With portrait, 12mo, 181 pages. Jewish Pub- 
lication Society of America. 

HISTORY 

The Cambridge Modern History. Planned by Lord 
Acton; edited by A. W. Ward, G. W. Prothero, and 
Stanley Leathes. Volume XH.: The Latest Age. 
Large 8vo, 1033 pages. Macmillan Co. $4 net. 

The Japanese Empire and Economic Conditions. By 
Joseph D'Autremer. Illustrated, large 8vo, 319 pages. 
Charles Scribner's Sons. $3. net. 

The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment. By 
Maurice Fishberg. 12mo, 578 pages. Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons. $1.50. 

Hood's Texas Brigade: Its Marches, its Battles, its 
Achievements. By J. B. Policy. Illustrated, 8vo, 
347 pages. Neale Publishing Co. 



26 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



ALL OUT- OP- PRINT BOOKS SUPPLIED, 

no matter on what subject. Write us. We can i?et 
you any book ever published. Please state wants. Catalogue free. 
BAKER'S GREAT BOOK SHOP, 14-16 Bright St., BIRMINGHAM, ENS. 



New and Second-hand Books 

ON 

Comparative Religion and Mysticism 

Catalogues free on application. 

JOHN M. WATKINS 

21 Cecil Court Charing Cross Rd. LONDON, W. C. 



LUZAC & CO. 

46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET : : LONDON, W.C. 

MAKE A SPECIALTY OP 

ORIENTAL LITERATURE, RELIGION, ETC. 

Catalogues issued periodically of new and second-hand books 
which are sent gratis on application! 



Are You Interested in Books? 

If so. send us a card stating what subject you are inter- 
ested in and we will forward catalogues of both new and 
second-hand books on those lines. Our stock is enormous 
and our prices will please you. 

W. HEFFER SONS, Ltd. Bookseller, Cambridge, Eng. 

Just published catalogue No. 67. English literature from Chau- 
cer to the present time. 112 pages. New Books at Bargain Prices. 



Catalogue of Americana 

Sent Free on Application 

I _ 1> I Ol 120 Eait 59th Street 

Lexington book ohop New York at y 



Our Bargain Catalogs 

ARE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION 



A cuttomer writes : " Please quote me prices ; I find it 
costly not to have communicated with you before 
purchasing." 

"A Catalog of Reference Book* offered from 2S to 60 
per cent. Discount. ' ' 

A Catalog of Book* Relating to American Hittory. 

A Catalog of Art Books. 

A Catalog of Standard Sets. 

ONE OB ALL MAILED ON BEQUEST 
Quotations Made on Special Itemt on Request 



The H. R. Hunting Co. 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS Continued 
GENERAL LITERATURE 

Constrained Attitudes. By Prank Moore Colby. 12mo, 

249 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.20 net. 
South African Folk-Tales. By James A. Honey. 12mo, 

151 pages. Baker & Taylor Co. $1. net. 
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce. Volumes 

II. and III. Each 8vo. Neale Publishing Co. In 10 

volumes, $25. net. 

NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE 

The Works of George Meredith. Memorial Edition. 
New volumes: Farina, General Ople, and Tale of 
Chloe; The House on the Beach, The Gentleman of 
Fifty, and The Sentimentalists. Each illustrated 
in photogravure, etc., 8vo. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
(Sold only in sets by subscription.) 

Centenary Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. 
New volumes: A Child's History of England; Nich- 
olas Nickleby, in 2 volumes. With the original illus- 
trations, 8vo. Charles Scribner's Sons. Per volume, 
$1. net. 

Oxford Editions of Standard Authors. New volumes: 
The Poems of John Dryden, edited by John Sar- 
geaunt; The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, ed- 
ited by A. D. Godley. Each 12mo. Oxford Univer- 
sity Press. 

Red- Letter Days of Samuel Pepys. Edited by Edward 
Frank Allen; with introduction by Henry B. Wheat- 
ley. Illustrated, 12mo, 298 pages. Sturgis & Walton 
Co. $1.25 net. 

VERSE AND DRAMA 

The Poems of Sophie Jewett. Memorial edition. With 
photogravure portrait, 12mo, 274 pages. Thomas Y. 
Crowell & Co. ?1.25 net. 

The Creditor: A Tragic Comedy. By August Strind- 
berg; translated by Francis J. Ziegler. 8vo, 118 pages. 
Brown Brothers. $1. net. 

Antl- Matrimony: A Satirical Comedy. By Percy 
Mackaye. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 160 
pages. Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1.25 net. 
A Midsummer Memory: An Elegy on the Death of 
Arthur Upson. By Richard Burton. 12mo, 41 
pages. Minneapolis: Edmund D. Brooks. 
Provenca: Poems Selected from Personae, Exulta- 
tions, and Canzoniere of Ezra Pound. 16mo, 84 
pages. Small, Maynard & Co. $1. net. 
Traherne's Poems of Felicity. Edited from the MS. 
by H. I. Bell. 12mo, 150 pages. Oxford University 
Press. 

The Pioneers: A Poetic Drama in Two Scenes. By 
James Oppenheim. 16mo, 61 pages. B. W. Huebsch. 
50 cts net. 
Theft: A Play in Four Acts. By Jack London. 12mo, 

272 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. 
Rose of the Wind, and Other Poems. By Anna Hemp- 
stead Branch. 12mo, 229 pages. Houghton Mifflin 
Co. $1.25 net. 

Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads. Edited by 
John A. Lomax; with introduction by Barrett Wen- 
dell. 325 pages. Sturgis & Walton Co. $1.50 net. 
Motherlove: An Act. By August Strindberg; trans- 
lated by Francis J. Ziegler. 16mo, 41 pages. "Mod- 
ern Authors' Series." Brown Brothers. 
"There Is Nothing New": Poems. By Victoria F. C. 
Percy. 18mo, 78 pages. London: Elkin Mathews. 
Paper. 

Cactus and Pine: Songs of the Southwest. By Sharlot 
M. Hall. 12mo, 204 pages. Sherman, French & Co. 
$1.50 net. 
Forest and Town: Poems. By Alexander Nicolas De 

Menil. 16mo, 137 pages. Torch Press. $1.25 net. 
The Lure of Life: Lyrics of the "Zeitgeist." By Oliver 
Opp-Dyke. 12mo, 128 pages. Sherman, French & 
Co. $1. net. 

The Garden of Gray Ledge, and Other Poems. By 
Charlotte Williams Hazlewood. 12mo, 100 pages. 
Sherman, French & Co. $1.25 net. 
Love and the Year, and Other Poems. By Grace Gris- 
wold. 12mo, 97 pages. Duffleld & Co. 60 cts. net. 
As the Gods Decree: A Novel of the Time of Augus- 
tus. By Daniel Henry Morris. 12mo, 362 pages. 
Broadway Publishing Co. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



27 



The Voice of the Ancient. By Cyril Scott. 8vo, 63 

pages. London: J. M. "Watkins. Paper. 
Mother's Love Songs. By Elizabeth Toldridge. 16mo, 
52 pages. Richard G. Badger. 

FICTION 

The Golden Web. By Anthony Partridge. Illustrated, 
12mo, 339 pages. Little, Brown, & Co. $1.50. 

The Capture of Paul Beck. By McDonnell Bodkin. 
"With frontispiece, 12mo, 311 pages. Little, Brown, 
& Co. $1.50. 

The Story of Gosta Berling. Translated from the 
Swedish of Selma Lagerlof by Pauline Bancroft 
Flach. New illustrated edition; 8vo, 472 pages. Lit- 
tle, Brown, & Co. $2. net. 

The Sowing of Swords; or, The Soul of the 'Sixties. 
By Hannah Parting; edited by Elizabeth A. Meri- 
wether. 12mo, 382 pages. Neale Publishing Co. $1.50. 

Crow-Step. By Georgia Fraser. With frontispiece, 
12mo, 395 pages. Witter & Kintner. $1.50. 

The Gilded Way. By Victor Mapes. 12mo, 326 pages. 
Neale Publishing Co. $1.50. 

-Step by Step: A Story of the Early Days of Moses 
Mendelssohn. By Abram S. Isaacs. With portrait, 
12mo, 160 pages. Jewish Publication Society of 
America, 

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION 

Japan and the Japanese. By Walter Tyndale. Illus- 
trated in color, large 8vo, 317 pages. Macmillan 

Co. $5. net. 
Farthest West: Life and Travel in the United States. 

By C. Reginald Enock. Illustrated, 8vo, 324 pages. 

D. Appleton & Co. 
Jn Africa: Hunting Adventures in the Big Game 

Country. By John T. McCutcheon. Illustrated, 

large 8vo, 402 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $3. net. 
Uganda for a Holiday. By Sir Frederick Treves. 

Illustrated, large 8vo, 233 pages. E. P. Dutton & 

Co. $2.50 net. 
An Englishman in Ireland: Impressions of a Journey 

in a Canoe by River, Lough, and Canal. By R. A. 

Scott-James. Illustrated, 12mo, 264 pages. E. P. 

Dutton & Co. $2. net. 
Highways and Byways In Cambridge and Ely. By 

Rev. Edward Conybeare. Illustrated, 12mo, 431 

pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net. 
Home Life in Spain. By S. L. Bensusan. Illustrated, 

12mo, 317 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.75 net. 
The Real France. By Laurence Jerrold. 12mo, 288 

pages. John Lane Co. $1.50 net. 
The Land of the White Helmet: Lights and Shadows 

across Africa. By Edgar Allen Forbes. Illustrated, 

8vo, 356 pages. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50 net. 
Lights and Shadows of Life on the Pacific Coast. By 
S. D. Woods. With portrait, 12mo, 474 pages. Funk 
& Wagnalls. $1.20 net. 
Around the Emerald Isle: A Record of Impressions. 

By William Charles O'Donnell, Jr. 12mo, 171 pages. 

Boston: Roxburgh Publishing Co. 
The Log of Three across the Sea. By Helen M. 

Smeeth. 16mo, 212 pages. Chicago: Henneberry Co. 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce. New, 
and revised edition; in 2 volumes, large 8vo. Mac- 
millan Co. $4. net. 

The Conflict of Color: The Threatened Upheaval 
throughout the World. By B. L. Putnam Weale. 
Large Svo, 341 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net. 

An Olive Branch in Ireland and Its History. By 
William O'Brien. With portrait, large Svo, 473 
pages. Macmillan Co. $3.25 net. 

The Conservation of Water. By John L. Mathews. 
Illustrated, Svo, 289 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. 
$2. net. 

The Conflict between Individualism and Collectivism 
in a Democracy: Three Lectures. By Charles W. 
Eliot. 16mo, 134 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
90 cts. net. 

American Playgrounds: Their Construction, Equip- 
ment, Maintenance, and Utility. Edited by Everett 
B. Mero. Illustrated, Svo, 291 pages. Baker & 
Taylor Co. 

( Continued on next page) 



THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

Wholesale Dealers in the Books of all Publishers 
33-37 E. 17th Street, NEW YORK CITY 

LIBRARY ORDERS 
FILLED PROMPTLY 



We have hundreds of satisfied customers in all parts of 
the United States. In addition to our large stock of 
the books of all publishers, we have unexcelled facil- 
ities for securing promptly books not in stock and 
making shipments complete. Our import department 
is thoroughly equipped. Save delay by ordering from 
New York City the publishing center of the country. 



SPECIALIST IN 
Railroad, Canal, and Financial Literature 

Large stock of books and pamphlets on these subjects. 

DIXIE BOOK SHOP, 41 Liberty St., New York 



SEND YOUR "WANTS" TO 

WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 

Publishers, Booksellers, Stationers, Printers 
851-853 SIXTH AVE. (Cor. 48th St.), NEW YORK 


ALL BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 


Including 

FRENCH 

SPANISH, ITALIAN. 
GERMAN AND OTHER 
FOREIGN 

BOOKS 


Including 

MEDICAL 

books and works concerning 
HORSES, CATTLE, DOGS 
and other Domestic 

Animals 


Special facilities for supplying Schools, Colleges and 
Libraries. Catalogues on Application. 



A Portrait Catalogue 



FREE ON REQUEST 
This CATALOGUE contains a full list of titles to date. 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 East 17th St., NEW YORK 



THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES 

The Study of Ivanhoe 
The Study of Idylls of the King The Study of Romola 

Single copies, 50 cents 

Send for full list and price for schools, classes and clubs to 
H. A. DAVIDSON, Cambridge, Mass. 



FOR SALE 

THE DIAL, VOLUMES I. to XXV. 

1880-1898, bound in dark brown cloth. In 
perfect condition. These volumes include 
all early numbers, many of which are now 
out-of-print and not obtainable elsewhere. 

PRICE ON APPLICATION 
THE DIAL COMPANY, 203 Michigan Avenue, CHICAGO 



28 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 1, 



THE NEW LAOKOON 

An Essay on the Confusion of the Arts 

By IRVING BABBITT 

Crown 8vo, $1.25 net. Postage, 10 cents 

" In abundant learning, lightly carried ; in the num- 
ber and importance of the distinctions it establishes ; 
in a certain passion of the intellect and masculine 
eloquence, ' The New Laokoon ' seems to me no whit 
inferior to the old." F. J. Mather, Jr., in The Nation. 

" The most important publication of the year in the 
field of aesthetics." Literarisches Echo (Berlin). 

"The most stimulating contribution to aesthetics 
that has appeared in England for twenty years." 

Westminster Review. 



BOSTON HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY NEW YORK 



The only biography of the founder of modern Socialism 

KARL MARX : His Life and Work 

By JOHN SPARGO 

$2.50 net ; $2.70 carriage paid. 

B. W. HUEBSCH, 225 Fifth avenue, New York City 



In studying circulation remember quality 
is equally important with quantity. Ten 
thousand readers, and every one a tenta- 
tive buyer of your books, is better than 
100,000 scattered circulation where you 
"may hit somebody." Publishers can't 
afford "general publicity." 

Publisher's Weekly. 



Etched Portraits 

By JACQUES REICH 
FAMOUS AMERICANS 



WASHINGTON 

JEFFERSON 

HAMILTON 

FRANKLIN 

WEBSTER 

JACKSON 



MADISON 
PAUL JONES 
JOHN MARSHALL 
LINCOLN 
GEORGE WILLIAM 

CURTIS 
Plates 14x18 inches. 



GRANT 

CLEVELAND 

McKINLEY 

ROOSEVELT 

TAFT 

CARNEGIE 



SERIES OF AUTHORS 

TENNYSON HOLMES THACKERAY 

BRYANT WHITTIER MEREDITH 

LOWELL MRS. STOWE DICKENS 

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 
Plate 




LIST OF NEW BOOKS continued 

Corruption In American Politics and Life. By Robert 
C. Brooks. 8vo, 304 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. 
$1.25 net. 

Economic Annals of the Nineteenth Century, 1801-1820. 
By William Smart. Large 8vo, 775 pages. Mac- 
millan Co. $6.50 net. 

What Eight Million Women Want. By Rheta Childe 
Dorr. Illustrated, 8vo, 338 pages. Small, May- 
nard & Co. $2. net. 
Democracy and the Overman. By Charles Zueblin. 

12mo, 218 pages. B. W. Huebsch. $1. net. 
Economic Prejudices. By Yves Guyot; translated by 
Fred Rothwell. 12mo, 166 pages. Charles Scribner's 
Sons. $1. 

Sociology and Modern Social Problems. By Charles 
A. Ellwood. 12mo, 331 pages. American Book Co. 
$1. net. 
Import and Outlook of Socialism. By Newton Mann. 

12mo, 336 pages. Boston: James H. West Co. 
On the Firing Line in the Battle for Sobriety. By 
Jenkin Lloyd Jones. 16mo, 134 pages. Chicago: 
Unity Publishing Co. 50 cts. 

RELIGION 
Reason and Belief. By Sir Oliver Lodge. 12mo, 166 

pages. Moffat, Yard & Co. $1.25 net. 
The Old Testament Narrative. Edited by Alfred 
Dwight Sheffield. Illustrated, 12mo, 510 pages. 
Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50 net. 

The New Testament of Higher Buddhism. By Timothy 
Richard. 8vo, 275 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
$2. net. 
The Trinity. By Rev. Francis J. Hall. 12mo, 316 

pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.50 net. 
The Revelation of Present Experience. By Edmund 
Montgomery. 12mo, 92 pages. Sherman, French & 
Co. 80 cts. net. 

The Book of the Prophecies of Isaiah. By John Edgar 

McFadyen. With map, 16mo, 421 pages. "The Bible 

for Home and School." Macmillan Co. 90 cts. net. 

The Evolution of Religion. By William A. Hinckle. 

12mo, 161 pages. Sherman, French & Co. 80 cts. net. 

MUSIC 

Massenet and his Operas. By Henry T. Finck. Illus- 
trated, 12mo, 245 pages. John Lane Co. $1.50 net. 
Forty Songs by Richard Strauss. Edited by James 
Huneker. Large 8vo, 52 pages. "The Musicians' 
Library." Oliver Ditson Co. Paper, $1.50; cloth, $2.50. 
Piano Teaching: Its Principles and Problems. By 
Clarence G. Hamilton. 12mo, 169 pages. Oliver 
Ditson Co. 
Octave Studies after J. S. Bach. By Isidor Philipp. 

8vo, 34 pages. Oliver Ditson Co. $1.50. 
Classics for Violin with Piano Accompaniment. Vol- 
ume II. 8vo, 80 pages. Oliver Ditson Co. $1. 
Three Idyls from Arcady. By Thomas S. Jones, Jr., 
and H. Alexander Matthews. 8vo, 12 pages. Oliver 
Ditson Co. 75 cts. 

The Cocoa Palm, and Other Songs for Children. By 
Mary Dillingham Frear. Revised edition; large 8vo, 
89 pages. Oliver Ditson Co. 

The Half Dollar Music Series. New volumes: Encore 
Songs; Easy Pieces for Violin and Piano; Easy Opera 
Melodies for the Piano; Opera Transcriptions for the 
Piano; Little Recreations for the Piano; Modern Piano 
Compositions; Twenty-Five Easy Piano Pieces, Grade II. 
Each 8vo. Oliver Ditson Co. Paper, per volume, 50 cts. 

EDUCATION 

A Text-Book in the Principles of Education. By 
Ernest Norton Henderson. 12mo, 593 pages. Mac- 
millan Co. $1.75 net. 

A History of Education in the United States since the 
Civil War. By Charles Franklin Thwing. 12mo, 
348 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. 
The Essentials of Education: A Practical Study of 
the Aim of Moral Education. By Edward O. Sisson. 
12mo, 214 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net. 
Idealism in Education; or, First Principles in the Mak- 
ing of Men and Women. By Herman Harrell Home. 
12mo, 183 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



29 



American Writers of To-day. By Henry C. Vedder. 
New edition; 12mo, 326 pages. Silver, Burdett & Co. 
$1.50. 
The Place of History in Education. By J. W. Allen. 

12mo, 258 pages. D. Appleton & Co. 
Literature in the School: Aims, Methods, and Inter- 
pretations. By John S. Welch. 12mo, 232 pages. 
Silver, Burdett & Co. $1.25. 

The Dynamic School of To-morrow: Realism in Teach- 
ing the Aesthetic Element in Education. By Franz 
Alonzo Hilderbrand. Illustrated, 8vo, 395 pages. 
New York: Aberdeen Publishing Co. 
A First Book In English Literature. By Henry S. 
Pancoast and Percy Van Dyke Shelly. Illustrated, 
12mo, 497 pages. Henry Holt & Co. 
Introduction to Political Science. By Raymond Gar- 
field Gettell. 8vo, 421 pages. Ginn & Co. $2. 
P. Terenti Afrl Havton Timorvmenos. Edited by 
F. G. Ballentine. 16mo, 29 pages. Benj. H. San- 
born Co. 

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. With in- 
troduction and notes by Henry Norman Hudson; 
edited and revised by Ebenezer Charlton and Moses 
Grant Daniel. 16mo, 114 pages. Ginn & Co. 50 cts. 
Art Songs for Schools. By Will Earhart. Large 8vo, 

283 pages. American Book Co. 80 cts. net. 
The Mastersinger. By Frank R. Rix. Large 8vo, 191 

pages. American Book Co. 65 cts. net. 
The Oregon Trail. By Francis Parkman. Edited by 
Clarence Walton Vail. With portrait, 16mo, 553 
pages. Charles E. Merrill Co. 50 cts. net. 
Selections from the Laokoon of Lessing, Herder, and 
Goethe. Edited, with introduction, by William Guild 
Howard. With photogravure frontispiece, 12mo, 470 
pages. Henry Holt & Co. 
Stories of the King. By James Baldwin. Illustrated, 

12mo, 335 pages. American Book Co. 50 cts. net. 
A Language Series: Book One. By Robert C. Metcalf 
and Augustine L. Rafter, A.M. Illustrated, 12mo, 256 
pages. American Book Co. 40 cts. net. 
Calvert of Maryland: A Story of Lord Baltimore's 
Colony. By James Otis, 12mo, 166 pages. American 
Book Co. 35 cts. net. 
Historical French Reader. Edited by Felix Weill. 

16mo, 163 pages. American Book Co. 40 cts. net. 
Easy Standard French. Edited by Victor E. Francois. 

16mo, 171 pages. American Book Co. 40 cts. net. 
Ernstes und Heiteres: Tales by Modern German 
Writers. Edited by Joseph Schrakamp. 16mo, 202 
pages. American Book Co. 35 cts. net. 
Joan of Arc: French Composition. By H. A. Guerber. 
16mo, 102 pages. American Book Co. 30 cts. net. 

BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG 
The Silver Thread, and Other Folk Plays for Young 

People. By Constance D'Arcy Mackay. 16mo, 237 

pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.10 net. 
An Out-of-Door Diary for Boys and Girls. By Marion 

Miller. Illustrated in color, etc., 8vo. Sturgis & 

Walton Co. $1. net. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Napoleon in Caricature, 1795-1821. By A. M. Broadley; 
with introductory essay by J. Holland Rose. In 
two volumes, illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo. 
John Lane Co. $12.50 net. 

Orchids for Everyone. By Charles H. Curtis. Illus- 
trated in color, etc., large 8vo, 234 pages. E. P. 
Dutton & Co. $6. net. 

Old English Houses: The Record of a Random Itiner- 
ary. By Allan Fea. Dlustrated in photogravure, etc., 
large 8vo, 273 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $3. net. 
Ancient English Christmas Carols. Edited by Edith 
Rickert. Illustrated in photogravure, 16mo, 317 
pages. Duffield & Co. $3.25 net. 

Ski-ing for Beginners and Mountaineers. By W. 
Rickmer Rickmers. Illustrated, 12mo, 175 pages. 
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. 
The Glamour of Oxford: Descriptive Passages in 
Verse and Prose. By various writers: edited by 
William Knight. 12mo, 263 pages. Oxford Uni- 
versity Press. 

(Continued on next page) 



g. M. HOLLY 

Authors' and Publishers' Representative 
Circulars sent upon request. 156 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK. 

THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION 

Established in 1880. LETTERS OP CRITICISM. EXPER7 
REVISION OP MSB. Advice as to publication. Addren 
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 70 FIFTH AVB.. NEW YORK CITY 

MISS N. E. WEEKS 

STENOGRAPHY and TYPEWRITING 

Literary and Dramatic Work a Specialty. Preparation 

of Book* for New Edition*. Revition of Manuscript*. 

Tel. Kenwood 203 504 East 43d Street. Chicago 

Authors' MSS. Revised and Sold 

Under the direct supervision of one of America's successful 
authors. Operating under the written endorsement of leading 
publishers. Private editions published. Charges moderate. No 
advance fee. Mail your MSS. to-day. 

LITERARY BUREAU 

810 Stephen Girard Building PHILADELPHIA 



MAKE 

MONEY 
WRITING 


SHORT STORM 

Send for Free Booklet Tells flow 


UNITED PRESS COLLEGE OF 
AUTHORSHIP, SAN FRANCISCO 



AUTHORS 

wishing manuscripts placed without reading fee, address 

La TOUGHE HANCOCK, 1 34 W, 37th St., New York City 





WRITERS-ARTISTS. S 

Designs, and all other Publishable Material on Commission. 
We know who pays best prices, and can save you time and money 
in the disposal of your productions. 
CASH RETURNS, explaining our 
system, sent on request. Mention your 
line when writing. 

THE BURELL SYNDICATE, 
R. 795. N*. 1 18 E. 28th Street, New York 



LETTERS OF CELEBRITIES BOUGHT 

I will pay each for original autograph letters and documents of any 
famous person, ancient or modern. Send me a list of what you have. 

WALTER R. BENJAMIN 225 Fifth Avenue NEW YORK 

A PRIVATE gentleman forming a Col- 
lection of Autograph Letters of cele- 
brated personages, desires correspondence 
with those who may have such letters and 
will dispose of them. Dealers will not reply. 
Good prices paid for good specimens. 

HENRI BORNOT 

9th FLOOR, 28 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. l r 



The One Indispensable 

Medium for Publishers 

of Worthy Books 

'T'HIRTY years of continuous publi- 
cation under the same management 
speak for THE DIAL'S stability and 
success. It is preeminently a book 
journal, published solely in the inter- 
ests of the book class, the literary 
and cultivated class, the class that buy 
books. It is issued from the second 
largest city in the country, the centre 
of the immense book-consuming region 
of the Middle West. 



HTHE DIAL is more generally con- 
sulted and depended upon by 
librarians in making up orders for 
books than any other American critical 
journal; it circulates more widely 
among retail booksellers than any 
other journal of its class; it is the 
accustomed literary guide and aid of 
thousands of private book-buyers, 
covering every section of the country. 



T^HESE facts make THE DIAL indis- 
putably the foremost medium for 
high-grade advertising,- the one 
indispensable medium for the publisher 
of worthy books. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS continued 

Celebrated Criminal Cases of America. By Thomas S. 
Duke. Illustrated, large 8vo, 403 pages. San Fran- 
cisco: James H. Barry Co. $3. net. 
The Secrets of the Vatican. By Douglas Sladen. New 
edition; illustrated, 8vo, 372 pages. J. B. Lippin- 
cott Co. $2.50 net. 

The Miracle of Right Thought. By Orison Swett Mar- 
den. With portrait, 12mo, 339 pages. Thomas Y. 
Crowell & Co. $1. net. 

The Mystery of Golf. By Arnold Haultain. Second 
edition, revised and enlarged; 12mo, 249 pages. Mac- 
millan Co. $1.75 net. 

Natural Philosophy. By Wilhelm Ostwald; translated 
by Thomas Seltzer. New edition; 12mo, 191 pages. 
Henry Holt & Co. $1. net. 

The American Annual of Photography, 1911. Illus- 
trated in photogravure, etc., 8vo, 328 pages. New 
York: The American Annual of Photography. Paper. 
Scottle and his Lady. By Margaret Morse. Illus- 
trated in tint, 12mo, 276 pages. Houghton Mifflin 
Co. |1. 

Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnol- 
ogy. New volumes: Chippewa Music, by Frances 
Densmore; Antiquities of Central and Southeastern 
Missouri, by Gerard Fowke. Each illustrated, 8vo. 
Washington: Government Printing Office. 
Lumen de Lumine; or, A New Magical Light. By 
Thomas Vaughan; edited, with introduction and 
notes, by Arthur Edward White. With frontispiece, 
12mo, 98 pages. London: John M. Watkins. 
Flashlights from Real Life. By John T. Dale. 12mo, 

205 pages. Chicago: Fairfax Publishing Co. $1. 
Oh, to Be Rich and Young! By Jabez T. Sunderland. 
12mo, 102 pages. American Unitarian Association. 
$1. net. 

How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day. By Arnold 
Bennett. 16mo, 75 pages. George H. Doran Co. 
50 cts. net. 
The Teddysee. By Wallace Irwin. Illustrated, 12mo, 

83 pages. B. W. Huebsch. 75 cts. net. 
Youth, Not Age, our Birthright. By H. Louise Burpee. 

16mo, 14 pages. Paper, 40 cts. net. 
The Township of Jefferson, III., and "Dinner-Pail 
Avenue." By Alfred Bull. Illustrated, 8vo, 57 
pages. Irving Park, HI.: Alfred Bull. 



inVI I C nc PDEErT HOWARD SUTHERLAND 
ILFILLo Ur UKUtLL $1.00. By MU $1.09 

Second Series AN EXQUISITE GIFT BOOK 

DESMOND FITZGERALD, 156 5th Ave., New York 

FOR SALE BOUND VOLUMES OF 

ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1858-1910 (Except Vol. 17). 
CENTURY MAGAZINE, 1882-1910. 
SCRIBNER'S MONTHLY, VOLS. 18 to 22. 
HARPER'S MONTHLY, VOLS. 70 to 111 (Except 97-98). 
UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY, 1860-1861. 

Address M. I., 11O E. 73d, Street New York City 

The Players of London 

By Louise Beecher Chancellor 

(Mrs. William Estabrook Chancellor) 

Drawings and decorations by Harry B. Matthews, 

Do You Know the Love-story of Phyllis, the First 

Woman Actress in England? 

A beautiful story in a beautiful form and suitable for a 
Christmas present to a youth or maiden, or for a wedding 
gift to a bride. 

News, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

" The book is so handsome in its violet and gold binding and 
tells such a charming tale of the great master of English drama, 
that it appeals with equal power to lovers of good stories and 
to lovers of the drama." 

Bound in Lavender, Printed in Two Colors and Boxed. 

Cloth. Extra 8vo, SI. 75 Net. 

B. W. DODGE & COMPANY, Publisher. 

43 West 27th Street NEW YORK 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



31 



NOW READY 

A History of the French Academy 

BY D. MACLAREN ROBERTSON 

A N original history in English from the Academy's foundation, compendious yet adequate, 
*"* treating of its General History; of that of its Dictionary, an institution of itself; of its 
Membership (with its composition in three different lists), whose literary achievement is 
placed under the eye of the reader in brief biographies in a more compact form than any- 
where else between two covers, even in French. Shows clearly, also, the relationship 
between the five great national Academies and the Institute of France, of which the history 
is sketched in outline. 

The authority of its sources, its thoroughness and completeness within its scope, its fund 
of information and anecdote, should make this book what it aims to be, a permanent work of 
reference as an authority in English on (in Hallam's phrase) "the most illustrious institution 
in the annals of polite literature," besides forming for the general reader an agreeable story 
and for the student an introduction to the French literary and political history of nearly three 
centuries. 

8vo. Cloth-bound. Seven full-page half-tone illustrations. 405 pages. 
Price, $3. 00 net. Pottage, IS cents. 

G. W. DILLINQHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 



TT 



TT 



TT 



ANYBOOK 

advertised or 
mentioned in 
this issue mau 
b& hadjrorru 

mRQWKE'S 
DOOKSTOKE 

The Fine Arts 'Building 
' Chicaao 



31 II 



>f Interest to ^librarians 

The books advertised and reviewed in this 
magazine can be purchased from us at 
advantageous prices by 

public libraries, cl)ools, 
Colleges, ant) Universities 

In addition to these books we have an excep- 
tionally large stock of the books of all pub- 
lishers a more complete assortment than 
can be found on the shelves of any other 
bookstore in the United States. We solicit 
orders and correspondence from libraries. 

LIBRARY DEPARTMENT 

A. C. McGLURG & Go. 

CHICAGO 



THE DIAL [Jan. 1,1911. 



Recent and Forthcoming Text-Books 

ATKINSON'S HIGH-SCHOOL BOTANY 

By GEORGE F. ATKINSON, Professor in Cornell University. 493 pp. 12mo. $1.25. 

MARTIN'S THE HUMAN BODY (Advanced Course) 

New edition. By H. NEWELL MARTIN, sometime Professor in the Johns Hopkins University. Revised by Dr. E. G. 
MARTIN, Instructor in the Harvard Medical School. 546 pp. 8vo. $2.50. 

SALISBURY'S ELEMENTARY PHYSIOGRAPHY 

By ROLLTN D. SALISBURY, Professor in the University of Chicago. 359 pp. 12mo. $1.30. 

KELLOGG'S THE ANIMALS AND MAN 

By VERNON L. KELLOGG, Professor in Leland Stanford University. Ready in January. 

TOWNSEND AND GOODENOUGH'S ESSENTIALS OF CALCULUS 

By E. J. TOWNSEND and G. A. GOODENOUGH, Professors in the University of Illinois. 355 pp. 8vo. $2.00. 

HALL AND FRINK'S PLANE AND SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY 

Ready December 27. 

HAZEN'S EUROPE SINCE 1815 

By CHARLES D. HAZEN, Professor in Smith College. (American Historical Series.) 830 pp. 8vo. 



SEMPLE'S INFLUENCES OF GEOGRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT 

On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-geography 

By ELLEN CHURCHILL SEMPLE. With 20 maps. 650 pp. 8vo. Ready in February. 

SCOTT'S MONEY AND BANKING 

By W. A. ScpiT, Professor in the University of Wisconsin. Fourth Edition, rewritten, rearranged, and enlarged. 

377 pp. 8vo. $2.00. 

PANCOAST AND SHELLEY'S A FIRST BOOK IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 

By HENRY S. PANCOAST and PERCY VAN DYKE SHELLEY. 497 pp. 12mo. $1.25. 

SCHELLING'S ENGLISH LITERATURE DURING THE LIFETIME OF 
SHAKESPEARE 

By FELIX E. SCHELLING, Professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 486 pp. 8vo. $2.00. 



ENGLISH READINGS FOR SCHOOLS 

WILBUR L. CROSS, General Editor. 

Ready February 1 



Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice 

Edited by FREDERICK E. PIERCE of Yale University. 

Shakespeare's As You Like It 

Edited by JOHN W. CUNLIFFE, Professor in the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin. 

Shakespeare's Macbeth 

Edited by FELIX E. SCHILLING, Professor in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum 

Edited by W. S. HINOHMAN, Groton School. 

Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress 



-pi,,., , , T TT /-i College, Baltimore. 

Edited by J. H. GARDINER. 



Shakespeare's Julius Caesar 

Edited by A. H. Thorndike, Professor in Columbia 
University. 

Scott's Lady of the Lake 

Edited by A. M. HITCHCOCK, Hartford (Ct.) High 
School. 

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe 

Edited by WILBUR L. CROSS, Professor in Yale Uni- 
versity. 

Selections from Browning 

Edited by CHARLES W. HODELL, Professor in Goucher 




HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

34 West 33d Street, NEW YORK 378 Wabash Avenue, CHICAGO 



THE DIAL PRESS, FINE ARTS BUILDING, CHICAGO 






THE DIA 



<A SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

Criiirism, giscussion, an& 













EDITED BY 
FRANCIS F. BROWNE 



} Volume L. 
JVo./ttO. 



1 1Q11 
.' 10, J.W11. 



jo e. a copy. / FINE ABTS BUILDING 
tf.avear. 1 203 Michigan Blvd. 



Scribner Books 




of the Season 



A New Volume in the General History of Art 
"An Una; Specie* Mille " 

The Art of Northern Italy 

By CORK ADO RICCI. Director 
of the Royal Gallery, Parma. 

A compact, clear account of the history of all kinds of 
art in Northern Italy from the earliest times. 

500 illustrations, 4 in color. $1.50 net. 
Postpaid $1.65. 
Already Published 

Art in Great Britain and Ireland 

By SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG 
With over 500 illustrations, 4 in color. $1.50 net. 

Postpaid $1.65. 

The Pianoforte and its Music 

By HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL 
This new volume in the ' Music Lover's Library " is a 
graphic and accurate account of the development of the 
pianoforte as an instrument and of the composers and 
players who have been especially identified with that 
instrument from the beginning until our own day. 

Illustrated. $1.25 net. Postpaid $135. 

Popular Law-Making 

By FREDERIC J. STIMSON, Professor of Com- 
parative Legislation at Harvard University. 
A study of the tendencies of English and American legis- 
lation, so written and designed as to give the layman a 
practical understanding of the fundamentals of law and 
to furnish him a working knowledge of our legal and 
political-legal problems. $2.50 net. Postpaid $9.75. 



The Intimate Life of 
Alexander Hamilton 

By Dr. ALLAN McLANE 
HAMILTON (his grandson) 

' Thfre are many pages of this record, so full of inti- 
macy and delicacy, which will be long cherished by those 
who care for memoirs and delight in coining into full 
view of the commonplaces of the great." The Inde- 
pendent- $3.50 net. Postpaid $3.72. 

Moliere: His Life and His 
Works 

By BRANDER MATTHEWS, Professor of 

Dramatic Literature in Columbia University. 

" No such solid and consistently articulated study of the 

life-work of Moliere has ever before been presented to 

English readers." The Bookman. 

$3.00 net. Postpaid $SJSO. 

France Under the Republic 

By JEAN CHARLEMAGNE BRACQ, Litt.D., 
Professor of Romance Languages in Vassar College. 
" No blemish is glossed over or failing passed by in this 
successful attempt to gage the great political experiment 
of France during the last four decades and to make an 
inventory of the constructive and reformatory work of 
the Republic." Literary Digest. 

$1.50 net. Postpaid $1.65. 



The French Revolution 



By ALPHONSE AULARD, Professor 
of Letters at the University of Paris. 
Translated from the French of the Third Edition by Bernard Miall. 

Says the London Spectator : " M. Aulard is as impersonal and calm as a judge should be in summing up. The 
facts are presented with lucidity and truth, with impressive and cumulative weight. In 4 vols. The set, $8.00 net. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER' S SONS 



153 FIFTH A VENUE 



NEW YORK 



34 THE DIAL [Jan. 16, 1911, 



Ready Next Week. The First Volume of 

A GREATLY NEEDED WORK ON AN 
INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT SUBJECT 

A Cyclopedia of Education 

Edited by PAUL MONROE, Ph.D. 

Professor of the History of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; author of 
" A Text-Book in the History of Education ," " Brief Course in the History of Education." 

The need of such a work is evidenced : By the great mass of 
varied educational literature showing an equal range in edu- 
cational practice and theory ; by the growing importance of 
the school as a social institution and the fuller recognition of 
education as a social process ; and by the great increase in the 
number of teachers and the instability of tenure which at the 
same time marks the profession. 

The men who need it are : All teachers, professional men, editors, 
ministers, legislators, all public men who deal with large ques- 
tions of public welfare intimately connected with education 
everyone who appreciates the value of a reference work which 
will give them the outlines of any educational problem, the 
suggested solutions, the statistical information, and in general 
the essential facts necessary to its comprehension. 

Among the departmental Editors associated with DR. MONROE 
are Dr. ELMER E. BROWN, U. S.-Commissioner of Education, 
Prof. E. F. BUCHNER, of Johns Hopkins University, Dr. 
WM. H. BURNHAM, Clark University, M. GABRIEL COMPAYRE, 
Inspector-General of Public Instruction, Paris, France, Prof. 
WlLHELM MUNCH, of Berlin University, Germany, Prof. JOHN 
DEWEY, of Columbia University, Dr. ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLY, 
Stanford University, Calif., Professor Foster Watson, of the 
University College of Wales, Dr. DAVID SNEDDEN, Commis- 
sioner of Education for the State of Massachusetts, and others. 

Sen d for a Descriptive Circular and list of Contributors to Volume I. 

To be completed in five large octavo volumes. 
Each, $5.00 net. Volume I. ready next week. 



Published 



sed THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



THE DIAL 

J&emi=i;Hontf)Ig Journal of ILiterarg Criticism, Btscusston, anto Information. 



THE DIAL (founded in 1880) i publithed on the lit and 16th oj 
each month. TERMS or SUBSCRIPTION, 82. a year in advance, pottage 
prepaid in the United States, and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian 
postage 50 cents per year extra. REMITTANCES should be by check, or 
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY. 
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current 
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub- 
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription 
is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. AU com- 
munications should be addressed to 

THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. 

Entered aa Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 590. 



JANUARY 16, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



THE CHICAGO OPERA 



PAGE 
. 35 



JOHN SYNGE AND HIS PLAYS. Warren Barton 

Blake 37 

CASUAL COMMENT 41 

The pending English copyright bill. The passing 
of a noted rhetorician. Mr. Shaw pokes fun at 
Shakespeare. The inanity of our current drama. 
Colonel Higginson's eighty-seventh milestone. 
Anatole France on the question of women " immor- 
tals." Twenty thousand biographies in brief. 
Some newly-discovered Whittier poems. Literary 
taste in a New York policeman. 

THE LIFE OF AN EMPIRE- BUILDER. Percy F. 

Bicknell ; . .*/.:>*. . : . 44 

A CRITICISM OF MODERN ART. Edward E. 

Hale, Jr .46 

MEN AND MANNERS OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Walter L. Fleming 48 

A FAMOUS PUBLISHER OF THE 18TH CEN- 
TURY. Edward Payson Morton 51 

A GROUP OF LONG POEMS. William Morton Payne 53 

Phillips's Pietro of Siena. Phillips's The New 
Inferno. Miss Rose's Dante. Ficke's The Break- 
ing of Bonds. Peterson's Sigurd. Burton's A 
Midsummer Memory. Anderson's The Happy 
Teacher. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 53 

The eventful life of a famous peace-promoter. 
Surveys of literature, old and new. A guide to the 
appreciation of literature. An American commodore 
of the old navy. An artist's memories of his early 
training. Essays, satirical and otherwise. Poetry 
for every taste. The strength and cheer of old age. 

BRIEFER MENTION 59 

NOTES 60 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 61 



THE CHICAGO OPERA. 

A new chapter has been added to the history 
of opera in Chicago. Until the present year, 
this city has been dependent upon visiting com- 
panies for its supply of this particular form of 
artistic satisfaction, and the supply has been 
uncertain in quality and narrowly limited in 
quantity. Some years we got one week, some 
years two, and there was now and then a barren 
year when we got none at all. In the season of 
1909-10, there arose the hope of better things, 
for an entire month of opera was then vouch- 
safed us by the magnates who control the out- 
put of that forced musical product. A year 
ago, also, there was promise in the air, for an 
enterprise was set on foot to supply the long- 
felt need of a permanent organization which 
should make Chicago its centre, and which 
should give us what might fairly be called an 
opera season. That season, covering ten weeks, 
is just now ending, and its success is a matter 
of recorded history. To the faith, the determi- 
nation, and the devotion of the group of men 
who made the enterprise possible, and who 
offered to bear the loss, if loss there should 
prove to be, we pay our tribute of grateful 
recognition. The fact that they have closed 
the season with no loss to shoulder does not 
detract from our sense of obligation. They 
assumed a heavy risk for the public good ; it is 
a matter for general congratulation that the 
public rose to the height of its opportunity, and 
proved itself unwilling to become otherwise than 
morally indebted to its benefactors. 

Among the elements which have contributed 
to the success of a venture which caused many 
wise heads to wag doubtfully a few months ago 
we may mention those of major importance. 
The interprise was set in operation by the right 
sort of driving force, the quality of energy 
which is put into their work by men of prac- 
tical affairs. These men are not accustomed 
to failure, and they have now shown that even 
in the untried field of artistic endeavor the 
far-sighted and sagacious methods which bring 
business success are applicable to other than 
strictly business interests. Then the exploita- 
tion of the venture, in the form of preliminary 
heralding, reports of progress, and continuous 
publicity during the actual opera season, was 
very skilfully managed. Finally, the artistic 



36 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



forces assembled were such as to win confidence 
from the start, a confidence which we need 
hardly say has been more than justified by the 
ten weeks of actual performance. Not only 
were we provided with an array of soloists 
capable of meeting an exacting demand and of 
adapting themselves to a great variety of parts, 
but also with a completely adequate chorus and 
orchestra, and with stage-settings that might 
fairly be described as sumptuous. We have only 
to add that as director general or field marshal 
of all these forces and material adjuncts we 
were given the services of Signer Cleofonte 
Campanini, a great leader, to whose genius we 
have been indebted for the artistic unity and 
impressive totality of effect without which the 
best efforts of the most accomplished individual 
performers would have proved unavailing. 

This much may fairly be said in the way of 
whole-hearted praise. There remains the task 
of indicating, less for reproof than in the hope 
of future correction, what seem to us to have 
been instances of mistaken judgment in the 
planning of the work and in its business man- 
agement. It has been frankly an opera season 
upon a French-Italian basis, with Verdi, Puc- 
cini, Massenet, Charpentier, and Debussy for 
its supporting pillars. This has meant the pro- 
production of several works hitherto unknown 
to our public "La Fanciulla del West," 
"Thai's," "Louise," and "Pelleas et Melis- 
ande" for which we are extremely grateful. 
They are not great works, but they are interest- 
ing ones, and it is well that they should have 
been performed ideally, because it is only by 
the test of performance that new works may be 
appraised ; practically, because the appeal of 
novelty is one that the box-office may not ignore. 
With these works we must also mention the 
over-discussed "Salome," which calls for special 
consideration. This opera was announced long 
in advance, was given two performances, and 
was then withdrawn in deference to a storm of 
protest. Whether or not that protest was of a 
kind that deserved to be effective we are not 
now inclined to say. But no gift of prophecy 
was needed to know that it would be made, 
and exactly what form it would take. The 
management should have taken this into ac- 
count, and cannot offer surprise as their defence. 
They should have determined either not to pro- 
duce the work at all, or to keep on producing 
it no matter how loud the outcry from the hosts 
of philistinism. This lack of decision in this 
matter is not altogether to their credit. With 
the exception of "Salome," and possibly of 



" Les Huguenots," no work by a German com- 
poser was given during the entire season. This 
exclusion was deliberate, and did not result 
from a lack of the requisite forces ; it had only 
the effect of alienating a large section of the 
opera-going public, the section whose tastes are 
the most deserving of consideration. To many of 
the most serious lovers of music, a season of opera 
without Wagner and Mozart, without Beethoven 
or Weber or Humperdinck, is not opera at all. 
We cannot think it a far-sighted policy which 
filled ten weeks with French and Italian works 
alone, and which drew its entire repertory from 
two classes of works more or less sensational 
novelties and hackneyed popular favorities. 

Before the beginning of the season, we ex- 
pressed the hope that a moderate scale of 
charges would be adopted, as the only means 
of building up a steady and warmly-attached 
following. We regret to say that this hope was 
not realized ; the high scale that was fixed upon 
had the inevitable consequence of packing the 
theatre upon some nights, and leaving it half- 
empty upon others. What is needed is a tariff 
which will not be thought exorbitant by most 
lovers of music, and which will keep the house 
practically filled for all the performances. We 
believe that a lower tariff would have had pre- 
cisely this effect, and would have yielded about 
the same aggregate returns. Even if there were 
some risk in the experiment, it would be worth 
making, because its success would mean a public 
support ungrudgingly given and likely to be 
found lasting. The tariff actually adopted has 
proved, it is true, measurably successful, but it 
has left many of the supporters of the enter- 
prise with a sense of detachment and even an 
irritation. Irritation is not a strong enough 
word to express the feeling of the public toward 
the policy which, not content with adhering to 
the scale of prices (already unnecessarily high) 
officially announced, has grasped every possible 
opportunity to extort two or three additional 
dollars from the purchaser of a ticket whenever 
a sensational novelty or an exceptionally pop- 
ular vocalist was the attraction offered. This 
policy has resulted in a few crowded houses, but 
it has nearly killed the goose that should lay 
the golden eggs of future seasons. It is a 
policy which has come perilously close to bad 
faith with the public, in one instance notably, 
when the augmented schedule was not even ad- 
vertised, but was left to be discovered at the 
box-office by applicants for tickets. We are 
glad that it is possible in some degree to offset 
these unpleasant facts by calling attention to 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



37 



the wise and happy policy that provided a Sat- 
urday night performance every week at greatly 
reduced prices, and a series of Sunday afternoon 
concerts of which no one could maintain that 
they did not give good measure of value for the 
moderate prices asked for the seats. 

Next year's opera is already assured us by 
the success of the season now ended. We hope 
that it may prove no less profitable, and may 
achieve success without resorting to devices that 
will be more sharply resented upon repetition 
than they have been by the public in this year's 
tolerant and receptive mood. We think that 
the scale of prices should be lowered ; we are 
quite certain that, whatever it may be, no de- 
parture should be made from it when it is once 
announced. We trust that the half-price per- 
formances and the Sunday concerts may be con- 
tinued. We believe that the management will 
not again make the mistake of ignoring German 
opera in the interest of the inferior French and 
Italian forms. And we urge upon them with 
all the emphasis at our command not to give 
heed to the ill-advised plea for opera in the En- 
glish language, if that is to mean the wrenching 
of the score from the forms of foreign speech 
with which it is perforce most vitally linked. 
To deal in this brutal fashion with such a work 
as " Tristan " or * Aida " or " Pelleas " would 
be an artistic indignity of which we do not like 
to think any true musician capable. Those 
who ask for it have only the shallowest of argu- 
ments to advance in its favor, and they ignore 
the most fundamental aesthetic considerations. 
The only opera that has a right to be sung in 
the English language is opera which English 
composers have fitted to English words. When 
such works are given to the world, we shall be 
among the foremost to welcome their appearancej 
But to anyone for whom an opera is a work of 
art, an attempt to sing it with translated words 
is simply unthinkable. 



JOHN SYNGE AND HIS PLATS. 



The picture lover who thinks that in admiring 
the French luminists " impressionists," we used 
to call them he is welcoming painting's last 
word, is no more behind the times than the reader 
who supposes that, in knowing something of Lady 
Gregory, Mr. George Russell ("A.E."), and Mr. 
"William Butler Yeats, he keeps pace with the Irish 
literary movement. The dim distances and elusive 
charm of these writers remain ; but if I may be 
permitted to mix my metaphors some of the 



Irish playwrights prepare an altogether different 
palette. Such new arrivals as Pdraic Colum and 
S. L. Robinson and Rutherford Mayne are inter- 
ested, above all, in the vivid Ireland of the hour. 
And yet, beside the work of one who was their elder 
brother, the richly actual work of these dramatists 
either seems almost trifling or betrays an unchecked 
dalliance with the wraiths peopling the Celtic shadow- 
land where Ossian was magnified and Fiona Macleod 
tarried. In London, this greater Irish playwright 
great in achievement as well as by comparision 
has been acted by those same Abbey Theatre play- 
ers who were, at Dublin, his original interpreters. 
His ' Deirdre," the text of which has only recently 
been published, was lately presented at the Court 
Theatre; his "Tinker's Wedding" was acted a year 
ago at His Majesty's.* Here, however, he has held 
no stage f; nor has he had, like Mr. Yeats, his 
American editions. His plays are u literature " all 
the same ; and must (notwithstanding) hold spell- 
bound the American audience before which they 
are adequately produced: so admirably theatric 
they are in essence and in spoken line. Yet it is 
only to-day, with the presentation of his one-act 
play, " In the Shadow of the Glen " t by Mrs. 
Fiske, that he is coming into his own. 

n. 

John Millington Synge pronounced sing 
was born in 1871 ; being (I quote from a letter of 
his brother's writing) " the youngest son of the late 
John Hatch Synge, barrister-at-law, and owner of 
landed property in County Galway." He died thirty- 
eight years later, the author of six plays and a few 
poems and translations, and standing on the thres- 
hold of what promised to be a happy marriage. 
For this man of vigor, struck down by an incurable 
malady, death was announced some months at least 
before it came ; in the interval he worked at his 
play '' Deirdre." *' Death is a poor untidy thing at 
best, though it's a Queen that dies," he wrote on 
his sick-bed; and to Naisi, the Paris of this Irish 
Helen-drama, he gave this line : " It's a hard 
and bitter thing, losing the earth." 

* '' The Tinker's Wedding," a comedy in two acts, was 
published by Maunsel (Dublin), 1907. A four-column edi- 
tion of the dramatist's entire contribution, including his 
verse, has just been issued by the same publisher. 

t The professional stage, that is. His one-act " Riders to 
the Sea " was produced by amateurs before the Twentieth 
Century Club, in Boston, five years since; and was subse- 
quently discussed in a paper by Professor Vida D. Scndder, 
of Wellesley College. Lecture and play were published in 
" Poet-Lore,'' in the spring of 1905. The three-act comedy, 
" The Playboy of the Western World " (Dublin : Mannsel ; 
1907) was acted in Chicago, April 13, 1909, by Hart Conway's 
pupils in the School of Acting of the American Conserva- 
tory of Music. 

t With " Riders to the Sea," this comedy is issued by the 
London publisher, Elkin Mathews, in his " Vigo Cabinet 
Series." 

See "The Curse"; a poem whose full title is, "To a 
Sister of an Enemy of the Author's who disapproved of the 
' Playboy,' " in the preface to Synge's " Poems and Transla- 
tions," beautifully printed at the Cuala Press, 1909. 



38 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



The family that bred this man gave more than 
one bishop to the established church of Ireland, 
more than one man of law to the Dublin Courts. 
Did the Synges pass on to their one poet-playwright 
something of the Protestant spirit that they had 
so strongly, that something purged, however, of 
dogma? If so, the inheritance took form as a pro- 
test against Protestantism. For here was one who 
accepted this world for what it was, and in it found, 
without reforming it, plenty to love and to hate. 
Though Mr. J. B. Yeats has described him on the 
margin of my copy of the " Playboy " as " an 
ardent home-ruler and Nationalist," he was obliged 
to add, "yet so little pugnacious that he never 
declared his opinions unless under some sort of 
compulsion. A resolute peaceful man." Also, " a 
solitary, undemonstrative man, never asking pity, 
nor seeking sympathy, but . . . folded up in 
brooding intellect." 

If something of inherited independence and op- 
position entered into the composition of even the boy 
Synge, it may be well to note that he never suffered 
from a plethora of inherited goods and chattels, 
for all that " landed property in County Galway." 
Most men would have considered his tiny income 
quite too small a fund for travel and literary work. 
But of his education he could not complain. First 
of all, he was prepared by tutors for Trinity Col- 
lege, Dublin, which he entered in 1888. There he 
took prizes in Hebrew and Gaelic, and was grad- 
uated in 1892. He studied music, too, and ob- 
tained a scholarship in Harmony from the Royal 
Irish Academy a year before his college graduation. 
In 1893, he continued these musical studies in 
Germany. The eternal wanderlust that had stung 
men like Bamfylde, Moore, Carew, George Borrow 
(Mr. Huneker calls the roll) was in his blood, too. 
He was, for some years now, the gypsy-scholar, 
or another Goldsmith, if you will. Doubtless he 
played the fiddle better than that other Irishman: 
the fiddle which, years later, he scraped in Mayo 
cottages for peasants to dance and sing by. He 
was, also, to play for Italian sailors ; to hear story- 
telling in Bavarian woods. But, after spending a 
year in Germany, he "gave up music for litera- 
ture," as the brother writes in the letter I have 
before me. From 1895, he was in France prin- 
cipally at Paris. It was his intention to fit himself 
for criticism : he went at the task with more thor- 
oughness than is used in Anglo-Saxon countries. 
His gift for languages had declared itself at Dublin ; 
at the Sorbonne. he sought to master Romance phi- 
lology no less than French literature and the world's 
best criticism. His was no Bohemian ideal: he 
joined no band of cafe"-poets or sect of mutual 
admiration. The symbolists seem never to have 
deeply impressed this solitary student, who knew 
the Paris of their noisy decadence. Racine was his 
favorite among French poets. For some years after 
1895, he spent a part of each year in Paris; he had, 
too, friends in the country, whose homes he visited. 



All of which sounds most conventional for a 
poet. A shade less conventional is the circumstance 
that this student of philology and of literature 
whether in France or elsewhere on the Continent 
commonly lived with a family of the working class. 
To these folk he paid a small sum to share their 
table-room and attic ; he shared in their conversa- 
tion, too, and learned something of their private 
ways and thought. Two advantages, at least, this 
programme afforded. First of all, economy. Fur- 
thermore, it helped him in the mastery of languages, 
and satisfied, for the moment, a certain impulse 
that he strongly had to study, not books and speech 
alone, but human nature : human nature at home. 
Later, we shall see, he followed the same regimen 
in Ireland. And, impersonal as his literary method 
is, Synge's plays are, almost consequentially, rich 
in personality: for this sympathy of the writer for 
his characters, attained, not in the study, but in 
living with them on equal terms, gives his people 
roots in the soil they stand on. They are, indeed, 
no less real than the incidents and homely details 
of his plays are vividly suggestive of their proper 
setting. 

But it was not of home that he was thinking 
while he lived on at the Paris shoemaker's, now 
and again helping out the housewife, who was a 
couturier, with a rush order, and taking calmly, as 
a matter of course, a scolding for his clumsiness. 
Mr. Yeats, in an introduction contributed to one of 
Synge's plays, five years ago, tells us of finding this 
fellow-countryman in Paris, and of the end of this 
phase of his life this unique preparation for literary 
fruitf ulness. Six years earlier which must mean 
the winter of 1898-1899 he writes, he had been 
staying at a students' hotel in the Latin Quarter, 
and someone introduced him to an Irishman, 

" who, even poorer than myself, had taken a room at the 
top of the house. It was J. M. Synge, and I, who thought 
I knew the name of every Irishman who was working at 
literature, had never heard of him. . . . He had, however, 
nothing to show but one or two poems and impressionistic 
essays, full of the morbidity that has its roots in too much 
brooding over methods of expression, and ways of looking 
upon life which come, not out of life, but out of literature ; 
images reflected from mirror to mirror.'' 

Life had cast no light into his writings ; he had lost, 
too, the Irish that he had learned at the University : 
" for the only language that interested him was that 
conventional language of modern poetry which had 
begun to make us all weary." " Give up Paris," 
counselled the fellow-poet to this uncertain seeker 
of romance ; " you will never create anything by 
reading Racine, and Arthur Symons will always be 
a better critic of French literature. Go to the Aran 
Islands. . . . Express a life that has never found 
expression." 

Now, the Aran Islands, bare platforms and hag- 
gard steepes of rock, lie " about thirty miles from 
Galway, up the centre of the bay, but they are not 
far from the cliffs of County Clare, on the south, or 
the corner of Connemara, on the north." 



1911.] 



THE D1AJL 



39 



in. 

The Aran Islands which become the stage of 
all but one or two of Synge's dramas, also the chief 
source of their plots and their types are three in 
number : " Aranmor, the north island, about nine 
miles long ; Inishmaan, the middle island, about 
three miles and a half across and nearly round in 
shape ; and the south island, Inishere." All this 
and more one learns from the preface of that book 
of Synge's to which he gave their name as title.* 
It is no less a book of travel with decided merits 
than a document bearing upon the author's work 
for the stage, and upon the manner of life that he 
took up after leaving behind him the schools and 
garrets of Paris. The scene is a bleak one, " yet 
perhaps no other area speaks so eloquently, through 
ruined forts and churches, of thousands of pagan 
and Christian years lived painfully against the 
challenge of winds and waves and hunger."f Part 
one of the book shows us John Synge sitting over 
a turf fire, listening to the murmur of Gaelic that 
rose from the little public-house under his room. 
In Aranmore occurs this scene. But soon we find 
our author setting out for Inishmaan, " where Gaelic 
is more generally used, and the life is perhaps the 
most primitive that is left in Europe." The natives 
are Irish, but chastened in their laughter ; these are 
" dark " people, i.e., reserved, as compared with 
the mainlanders. In Inishmaan, one morning, 
stories are told round the kitchen fire; and the 
author confesses to being strangely moved at hear- 
ing an illiterate old man, a native of that wet rock 
lost in the sea, telling a tale of a bargain for a pound 
of human flesh, and stories reminiscent of " Cym- 
beline " and other legends laden with European 
associations. 

From the mouths of just such old men the play- 
wright who had as yet all his playwriting before 
him took down the argument of more than one of 
his dramas, told in the picturesquely vivid lan- 
guage of the islanders : and all in the first person. 
It was thus that he heard the story which he later 
made into the one-act piece, "In the Shadow of the 
Glen." I name that play particularly, not on ac- 
count of Mrs. Fiske's recent "discovery" of its 
possibilities, but because the playwright has so 
closely followed the narrative of the island story- 
teller; and because it is one of the earliest of Synge's 
productions: having been produced at the Moles- 
worth Hall, Dublin, in October, 1903. There are 
but four personages : Dan Burke, an old fanner ; 
Nora, his young wife ; Micheal Dara, a young 
herder ; and a tramp. The scene is " the last cot- 
tage at the head of a long glen in County Wicklow." 
It is characteristic of Synge's daring that his tramp, 
who comes to the cottage only to beg " a sup of new 
milk and a quiet decent place where a man could 

*"Tlie Aran Islands." By John M. Synge. With 
drawings by Jack B. Yeats. Dublin : Maunsel. 1907. 

t Article, "The Aran Islands," by Maude Radford 
Warren ; " Harper's Magazine," May, 1910. 



sleep," leaves it accompanied by " the woman of the 
house," whose husband had found her " a hard 
woman to please," and " a bad wife for an old man." 
It is characteristic of his powers, no less, that his 
reader accepts as natural, and perhaps as necessary, 
the changes brought about in four lives and in all 
their relations by the events of only a few moments. 
At th* opening of the piece, woman and tramp are 
total strangers ; they go out hand in hand, to sleep 
in a wet ditch. At the opening, the husband is 
jealous of a doltish young "herd," and sets a trap 
to catch his wife in sin with him. At the end of it, 
old Dan and young Micheal toast each other out of 
one bottle, and, " God help you, I don't mind you 
at all," says the ex-husband to the supplanted lover. 
One knows various writers who, with the tale of 
" The Shadow of the Glen " ready to hand, could 
have made a passable farce of it. John Synge has 
written pure comedy : and comedy that remains 
clean, albeit merciless, stripping its figures stark 
naked to the eyes of body and soul. But in that 
stripping, it is not the sordid alone that is uncovered. 
The restlessness, the vague dissatisfaction of the 
" hard woman to please," is as limitless as Hedda 
Gabler's restlessness and introspection. 

Above all, one's sense of justice is quite satisfied 
with the denouement. This last assertion holds good, 
equally, for all Synge's theatre. On reflection, it 
seems to us that everyone gets his deserts in these 
Irish dramas : in blows, in wettings, and in caresses. 
This is true of " The Shadow of the Glen " no more 
than of the much greater tragi-comedy, " The Play- 
boy," which I shall not spoil by trying to condense. 
The principal figure of that piece runs the whole 
gamut of natural timidity and tearfulness, heroism 
(of its sort), and braggadocio. Like the woman who 
lived in the shadow of the glen, he has suffered from 
the loneliness and emptiness of life. His mood is 
murderous, but it is also amorous ; and when it 
is amorous the poetry of a starved soul sings out 
unafraid. The Playboy experiences beatings and 
adulation, mockery and love and praise; and all these 
things belong to the youth to whom Synge has given 
substance and shadow. There is the same lyric 
beauty, heightened by contrasting irony, in "The 
Shadow of the Glen," with the tramp's invitation to 
" come along with me now, lady of the house, and 
it's not my blather you'll be hearing only, but you'll 
be hearing the herons crying out over the black 
lakes, and you'll be hearing the grouse and the owls 
with them, and the big thrushes when the days are 
warm"; there is the same lyricism, and also the 
same justice, in " Riders to the Sea," the most per- 
fect piece of them all, where not only a deep sense 
of the sea's power and pitilessness is conveyed, but 
where this power and pitilessness throw into relief 
the fatalism in which old Maurya is wrapped as 
in a garment : relaxed, at last, in her sense of the 
futility of struggle. This woman is much more than 
a widow of the wet west coast, mourning her lost 
mate and her lost children. Through this piece 



40 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



rises, in her keening for the dead, a note of tragedy 
unalloyed : the tragedy of the sea, but also the 
tragedy of the Irish temper. In love with sorrow, 
and branded with sorrow's mark, Maurya loses the 
last of her sons even before the sea has closed above 
him. And, satiated with grief, she mourns his 
death less than she has grieved, during nine days, 
at death's premonition. The chapter is ended, and 
"I'll have no call now to be crying and praying 
when the wind breaks from the south, and you can 
hear the surf is in the east, and the surf is in the 
west, making a great stir with the two noises, and 
they hitting one on the other," is her comforting 
thought. "No man at all can be living for ever, 
and we must be satisfied." 

But if, in reading " Riders to the Sea," we have 
been purified by the quintessence of tragedy, its 
terror and pity, every one of these plays has its 
tragic comedians, idealists each in his way or hers, 
who all do, momentarily (and only momentarily) 
escape through the windows of the imagination 
from bitter and binding circumstance. Their theme 
is the yearning after beauty, or love, or heroism ; 
the end is disillusion. Even of this bitterness is 
his comedy finally purged. Its purges are honest 
sympathy and pervasive humor. 

IV. 

" All art is a collaboration." Anyone happening 
upon this sentence in the brief preface to John 
Synge's "Playboy of the Western World" might 
fancy that here was a preaching playwright. 
Wrongly, beyond a shred of doubt, albeit Synge 
was a loyal member of the group of Abbey Theatre 
writers and players whose devotion to their artistic 
faith is as stout as their nationalism. But Synge, 
with no theses to lay down, took the world as he 
found it, as playwright and as citizen. He found 
it a world full of interesting surfaces ; but he held 
that the drama, like the symphony, "does not 
teach or prove anything."* 

Instead of that, and in spite of a kind of brood- 
ing sadness that is seldom wanting, Synge's work 
expresses a certain quality of the Irish realistic 
drama well brought out in the remark of a London 
play-reader to one of my friends. Their theme 
was the English-speaking stage. u Among the thou- 
sands of plays I have gone through in the last few 
years," said the play-reader, "a fair proportion 
have been the work of Irish men and Irish women. 
I have only to read a few pages of one of these 
plays to differentiate those posted to me from Lon- 
don, and those from across the Channel. Techni- 
cally, the Irish pieces often stand below the English ; 

* After writing these paragraphs, I had the pleasure of 
reading in the "New Quarterly" for February, 1910, in a 
paper by Mr. Francis Bickley, entitled "Synge and the 
Drama," the statement that " Synge was not part and parcel 
of the Irish Revival in the same way that Mr. Padraic Colum, 
for instance, is part and parcel of it. Mr. Colum, it may be 
affirmed, has as an artist, been created by the movement, 
bynge became affected by it, but he was neither its parent 
nor its son." 



but invariably they have an individual flavor, a 
kind of interest in life and in living, that stamps 
them instantly recognizable." 

This quality is most in evidence in the work of 
the playwright who died so recently, at the height 
of his powers. Ageless as are his characters and 
their aspirations, the sun of to-day beats almost 
cruelly upon the actual landscape: landscapes that 
are, withal, very dear both to characters and to the 
playwright. In his comedies, he tells us of realities ; 
in his verses, he bids his reader to 

" stretch in Red Dan Sally's ditch, 
And drink in Tubber fair." 

Except in one play and that scarcely completed * 
Synge celebrated, not the kings and queens of 
old Ireland, but tinkers who guzzle and swear, and 
tie up priests in sacks ; blind beggars ; a playboy, 
or " sport," who is acclaimed a hero for having 
killed his own father, and loses caste only on being 
proved a liar. The love-making of these pitilessly 
rendered types is, withal, as romantic as their oaths 
are eloquent. Romance was never more insistently 
demanded by a sophisticated public than by these 
simple-minded characters themselves. Pegeen, the 
publican's daughter, rejects her most promising 
suitor for no better reason than that he is " a mid- 
dling kind of a scarecrow, with no savagery or fine 
words in him at all." The blind beggars of " The 
Well of the Saints" are satisfied, "smelling the 
things growing up, and budding from the earth," 
sniffing the furze sprouting on the hill, and hearing 
the lambs of Grianan, "though it's near drowned 
their crying is with the full river making noises in 
the glen."f To find such irrepressible poetry and 
nature-love as penetrates this prose, or so unbound 
an imagination, or such ceaseless conflict of native 
idealism with base realities, John Synge's readers 
must journey back to the Elizabethan drama at its 
most fiery. One remembers Matthew Arnold's 
tribute to Celtic romance : " full of exquisite touches, 
showing how deeply nature lets him (the Celt) into 
her secrets." 

And yet, spontaneous, ebullient even, as his plays 
are, the preface to Synge's "Playboy," to which I 
have referred, does, however, very perfectly develop 
one line of theory. The playwright confines himself 
to discussing dialogue. " When I was writing ' The 
Shadow of the Glen,' some years ago," he tells us, 
" I got more aid than any learning could have given 
me from a chink in the floor of the old Wicklow 
house where I was staying, that let me hear what 
was being said by the servant girls in the kitchen." 
The anecdote is not reproduced simply for the light 



* " Deirdre of the Sorrows ": A Play in Three Acts. By 
John M. Synge. Cuala Press, Churchtown ; 1910. The same 
tale out of Irish folk-lore has been treated dramatically by 
Mr. Yeats, Mr. Russell, and others : and as a narrative by 
Lady Gregory and by William Sharp. Synge's play was 
given its first performance at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 
in January of this year. Since then it has been performed by 
the same Irish players in London. 

t " The Well of the Saints," a comedy in two acts, was 
published (London, 1905) by A. H. Bullen. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



41 



it casts upon one author's processes, nor yet because 
it reminds us of Moliere and his Laforet ; it serves 
to point out the happy chance that made of Synge 
an Irish playwright, not a Londoner, or a cosmo- 
politanised Yankee. Yes, in Ireland two languages 
are spoken: one of them Ireland's by birthright, 
the second, falsely called English, falsely, since 
this monument, though the bricks are English, was 
planned by Irish architects, and is quite unlike any- 
thing of English construction. Such a monument 
is Synge's. And, in finding new words for great 
themes, in this age when thought and words alike 
are all impotently stereotyped, as it were, a tremend- 
ous service is accomplished for English speech itself, 
as well as for the stage. It is not merely that 
homely phrases are used the combinations of 
fisher-folk and farmers. It is that they are used 
without a loss of dignity, where dignity is demanded. 
The purely ridiculous, is, for that matter, never 
aimed at ; even in the most boisterous of the 
comedies. Synge's humor, like all of humor that is 
ripest and best, is a shade too sad for noisy mirth. 

As for his language, and its freshness, it is worth 
our while to read on in that preface of which a word 
has already been spoken. " In a good play," Synge 
writes there, " every speech should be as fully flav- 
ored as a nut or apple, and such speeches cannot 
be written by anyone who works among people who 
have shut their eyes on poetry." And yet, if Ireland 
alone, of English-speaking lands, still uses " for a 
few years more " a speech that is, by turns, fiery 
and magnificent and tender, even Ireland shows no 
writers who share with Synge that fully flavored 
diction. As for the greater world, and the litera- 
ture of towns, the linguistic sweetness of a Mallarme 
or a Huymans lacks (as Synge himself expressed it) 
roots in the profound and common interests of life, 
while the realities of an Ibsen or Zola are coined in 
words joyless and pallid. The one thing is, however, 
no less essential than the other : the reality, and what 
Synge called " joy," what Hazlitt called ' gusto." 
The dead playwright had them both. True, the 
casual visitor to Ireland may complain that never 
did he hear peasants use speech so telling as Synge's 
and that these peasants of the dramatist's make no 
discrimination between the natural and the super- 
natural. Yet Synge drew his peasants only after 
knowing them in their huts and by their hearths ; 
the ringing speech of his rustics is the unhackneyed 
speech of that people, heard and reported by a poet. 
Indeed, their imagery is no literary exercise, but is 
only sufficient to the expression of unshamed emo- 
tion. This language belongs by right to a race of 
men who speak in English, but who think in Gaelic. 
Nor do the more primitive among contemporary 
Irishmen and Irishwomen much more critically 
discriminate between the natural and the miraculous 
than do the persons of " The Well of the Saints." 
Finally, to the sense of reality and the sense of full 
rich life and gusto which are found here in rare 
union is joined the skill of one who visualizes all 
that he has seen or heard of, and manages all with 



a hand which, seemingly careless, is none the less 
sure of its virtuosity. Whether or not Synge " re- 
wrote his plays entirely perhaps twelve or thirteen 
times," * I have no personal knowledge ; but not for 
nothing went those Paris years of study and experi- 
ment. 

To-day, few Americans know the vigorous and 
racy Speech of Synge's; his strong nationalism 
and scarcely less strong regionalism ; his grasp of 
character generally, and of the Celtic character 
first of all. Have I conveyed to some few readers 
the invitation directly to interest themselves in 
John Synge in his fearlessness without gross ness, 
his tenderness without sentimentality, his untamed 
energy of action and his rare pungency of phrase ? 
It was denied to Synge to live long enough to gain 
an international audience in his own lifetime ; 
and he died without achieving all the good work he 
promised to do in a world he loved well, in spite 
of seeing it clearly. But so far as he went, he 
walked firmly ; there need be offered for his fulfil- 
ment no word of apology. Nor can we mean any- 
thing to him, now, we and our enthusiam : in spite 
of all that he may mean to us. 

WARREN BARTON BLAKE. 



CASUAL COMMENT. 

THE PENDING ENGLISH COPYRIGHT BILL contains 
one clause of preeminent importance, the others re- 
lating to details of comparatively minor significance. 
By the statute of 1842, which is still in force, the 
term of copyright is at present forty-two years, or 
the lifetime of the author and seven years thereafter, 
whichever period shall be the longer. If the new 
bill is passed the term will be the lifetime of the 
author and fifty years thereafter, in accordance with 
the recommendations of the Berlin Convention of 
1909. This term is now in force in Austria, Bel- 
gium, Denmark, France, Portugal, and Russia; 
while Italy grants copyright protection for the 
author's lifetime or for forty years, whichever term 
be the longer; Germany for the author's lifetime 
and thirty years ; Spain for the author's lifetime 
and eighty years. The proposed English law would 
apply to citizens or residents of the kingdom or 
empire, and to citizens of states in copyright rela- 
tions with Great Britain. It would be for the Crown 
to ascertain whether this country, under its statute 
of 1909, is granting such copyright protection to 
British subjects as to entitle it to claim the protec- 
tion of the proposed law for its own citizens. Not 
unnaturally or unjustly would our manufacturing 
requirements and other petty restrictions be con- 
sidered as barring us from the copyright privileges 
extended to other nations. Deplorable and humili- 
ating is it that this country, because of its absurd 

* See Lord Dunsany's criticism of the Court Theatre per- 
formances of " Deirdre," " Saturday Review," June 4, 1910 : 
" But ' Deirdre of the Sorrows,' he had not time to rewrite, 
at least not more than once, and it may not be in all respects 
so perfect a play as his others, bnt it has a grander theme." 



42 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



copyright laws, should be the only civilized nation 
excluded from the benefits to accrue from the de- 
liberations, now in progress, of the Berne Convention 
in its attempts to harmonize and systematize the 
copyright requirements of the literary world. 



THE PASSING OF A NOTED RHETORICIAN was 

chronicled in the death, on Christmas day, of Pro- 
fessor Adams Sherman Hill of Harvard University. 
How many a student of that admirable textbook, 
Hill's " Rhetoric," has fondly dreamed of writing 
his way to fame by a careful observance of those 
beautiful laws so clearly laid down and so aptly 
illustrated by the author ! If it were not for the 
embarrassing necessity of having something to say 
before one can write with both power and correctness, 
Professor Hill would have created a multitude of 
eminent authors. In addition to his "Principles of 
Rhetoric," which appeared in 1878, and in a revised 
edition seventeen years later, he wrote " Our En- 
glish," "The Foundations of Rhetoric," and an 
elementary textbook of rhetoric and composition. 
Born in Boston in 1833 of good ancestry on both 
sides, he struggled along for five years under the 
distasteful Christian name of Abijah, but was re- 
lieved of the incubus by legislative enactment in 
1838. Harvard was, naturally enough, his college, 
and the law his first profession, which was early 
dropped for journalism, which in tnrn yielded to 
the more dignified attractions of the professorial 
chair. Assistant professor of rhetoric at Harvard 
from 1872 to 1876, he was made Boylston profes- 
sor of rhetoric and oratory in the latter year, and 
professor emeritus in 1904. To have held the 
Boylston professorship of rhetoric, to the teachings 
from which famous chair so many of our celebrated 
earlier writers have acknowledged their indebted- 
ness, is surely glory enough for any man. 



MR. SHAW POKES FUN AT SHAKESPEARE, and 
gratifies his well-known desire to dig up Shake- 
speare's bones and throw stones at them, in the 
recently acted and more recently published one-act 
farce, '"The Dark Lady of the Sonnets." The 
humor of this latest Shavian drama can hardly 
equal the humor of its being presented as part of a 
benefit performance in aid of the projected Na- 
tional Shakespearean Memorial Theatre. The real 
if not the ostensible motive of the play cannot be 
mistaken as a desire to make Shakespeare ridiculous 
by representing him as a snapper-up of other men's 
good sayings, a picker of other men's brains. In 
the opening scene a warder on the terrace at White- 
hall Palace, whither Shakespeare has come to keep 
an appointment with Mary Fitton, the Dark Lady 
of the Sonnets, happens to utter the phrase, "Angels 
and ministers of grace defend us!" Thereupon 
Shakespeare : " Well said, Master Warder. With 
your leave I will set that down in writing ; for I 
have a very poor and unhappy brain for remem- 
brance. . . . Stare not so amazedly at me; but 
mark what I say. I keep tryst here to-night with 



a dark lady. She proposed to bribe the warder. 
I gave her the wherewithal ; four tickets for the 
Globe Theatre." The Warder: "Plague on her! 
She gave me only two." Shakespeare (detaching 
a tablet) : " My friend, present this tablet, and you 
will be admitted at any time when the plays of 
Will Shakespeare are in hand. Bring your wife. 
Bring your friends. Bring the whole garrison. 
There is ever plenty of room." The broad humor, 
not to say horse-play, of the piece is in harmony 
with its author's published expressions of modified 
admiration for the author of " Hamlet." The play 
may be read in full in the January number of 
" The Red Book." 



THE INANITY OF OUR CURRENT DRAMA receives 
scathing condemnation at the hands of Professor 
Felix E. Schelling of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, the well-known student of the early English 
stage. Induced in an idle moment to transfer his 
attention to the American stage of a quarter-millen- 
nium later, he decided it to be the part of wisdom 
for him still to remain two centuries and a half 
behind the times. " Our popular drama of to-day," 
he affirmed in a recent public address, " is vulgar, 
flippant, and inane ; as a picture of life it is for 
the most part absurd. It would be difficult to find 
an art of any former degenerate age so devoid of 
ideas, so repetitious and preposterous, as the popular 
syndicated stage of to-day." Nor is it all to be 
accounted for by " commercialism, the want of an 
educational and established theatre, and the in- 
herited antipathy of the godly." " There are hun- 
dreds who sit in open-eyed wonder before the glitter 
of tinsel decking a bevy of painted ' stage ladies ' 
to one who could follow a dialogue of any subtlety 
with understanding. This is why our theatrical 
plots revolve in tedious repetition about the thirteen 
original situations, none of them original any longer, 
and why we continue to perpetrate on the stage, 
with bland, unblushing iteration, the eleven ances- 
tral witticims." And yet the time-honored " situ- 
ations " have lost none of their virtue, given only a 
man of genius to infuse them with fresh life and 
interest. It is the new treatment of the old and 
familiar that the story-reader and the theatre-goer 
will always delight in, even as each man's life is of 
significance and worth to him just so far as it is a 
fresh presentation of universal experience. Shake- 
speare's " situations " were almost without exception 
already old in his own day, and scores of Greek 
tragedies were based on the calamitous history of a 
single family. ... 

COLONEL HIGGINSON'S EIGHTY-SEVENTH MILE- 
STONE was passed the other day not unobserved by 
that wide-reaching public that reads his writings 
and admires his character and deeds. Among the 
visitors at his Cambridge home on that day the 
inevitable newspaper interviewer was of course 
conspicuously present. " What do you consider the 
great problem of our day ? Slavery was the prob- 
lem of your day, and that was settled." Thus the 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



43 



man with open notebook and expectant pencil ; to 
which the veteran abolitionist : " Yes, it was settled, 
but not easily, and it doesn't appear to be wholly 
settled yet. . . . Looking at the slavery question 
to-day, it looks simple enough the way it was 
settled but it didn't look simple then. And it 
is the same with the questions of to-day. They 
will look simple enough a generation hence, per- 
haps, although they do not look simple to us to- 
day. ... It is impossible to tell how our present 
problems will be settled, but I am satisfied that the 
future is safe." And this hopeful outlook is taken 
even though the speaker is fully aware that "our 
civilization is vastly more complicated to-day than 
it was sixty years ago." It is always refreshing 
to find a man of Colonel Higginson's years who 
refuses to believe that the world, like a sucked 
orange, will be about ready to throw away as soon 

he shall have done with it. 



ANATOLE FRANCE ON THE QUESTION OF WOMEN 
'IMMORTALS" says some things of interest to a 
writer in " Le Temps." In view of Madame Curie's 
reported desire to become a member of the august 
body into whose assembly-room no petticoated person 
is at present allowed to so much as peep, what her 
distinguished compatriot has to say concerning the 
election of women to membership will not fail to 
command attention. " Yes," he declares, "I should 
call it perfectly legitimate for the Acaddmie to elect 
women of talent and quality. Nothing seems to me 
more logical and traditional, and among the reasons 
that arise in my mind, as I examine the question 
without previous reflection, I see this argument at 
once : the very purpose of the Acade'rnie Francaise. 
What is that purpose ? Unquestionably this : To 
conserve Beauty and Tradition in France, to repre- 
sent genius and good manners, to associate them in 
a select company who thus incarnate the eminent 
qualities of this country, or at least what its founders 
believed to be its essential virtues. Now, woman is 
no stranger to good manners or French traditions ; 
and a woman of talent, of nobility, of supreme dis- 
tinction, may well deserve a place in the company 
who, in the eyes of certain people, represent the 
flower of the French virtues." That a country 
which has produced a Madame de Stael, a SeVign, 
a Re'camier, a Roland, a George Sand, and, finally, 
a scientist like Madame Curie, should seriously con- 
sider the propriety of creating academiciennes, is 
scarcely surprising. 



TWENTY THOUSAND BIOGRAPHIES IN BRIEF are 
contained within the covers of the English "Who's 
Who " for 1911. In spite of its compactness and 
its abbreviations, the book is rich in live human 
interest, and is even not devoid of humor. One 
enjoys remarking the different pastimes and diver- 
sions set against various names of note. Mrs. Jesse 
Saxby, for instance, amuses her leisure hours with 
" trying to write in rhyme " and " whist, the only 
game worth playing," Mr. Asquith and Mr. Balfour 



delight in golf, and the editor of " Punch " enlarges 
his biceps by swinging the croquet-mallet. The 
English passion for organizing multitudinous so- 
cieties with long names betrays itself in the many 
and sufficiently puzzling abbreviations abounding in 
these miniature biographies. But there is an index 
to these cabalistic symbols, whereby one learns 
that a certain person of note, sporting the initials 
I.B.S. A., is a member of the Inanimate Bird Shoot- 
ing Association, and another, labeled with the let- 
ters S.C.A.P.A., belongs to the Society for Check- 
ing the Abuses of Public Advertising. " Who's 
Who " may not be quite so interesting as some 
novels, but it certainly will be found more interest- 
ing than certain other novels that might be named. 



SOME NEWLY-DISCOVERED WHiTTiER POEMS are 
announced by Mr. Samuel T. Pickard, the poet's 
biographer, who has for some time been occupying 
the old Whittier house at Amesbury. Referring to 
his study of a volume of "The New England Re- 
view " for 1830-31, Mr. Pickard said, as reported 
in the press : " While it was edited by Whittier, I 
find much that has escaped me hitherto. I have 
found a whole nest of poems by Whittier never before 
recognized as his. The signature was the odd one, 
' Feramorz.' I find these ' Feramorz ' poems are 
Whittier's, and that he used this signature before 
and after he became editor of the ' Review.' " 
When we recall at how tender an age Whittier pro- 
duced verse of real merit, and remember that it was 
his first published poem (written in his twentieth 
year) that excited William Lloyd Garrison's en- 
thusiasm and led him to predict the young writer's 
future fame, we may confidently hope that this 
" nest of poems " will prove to be a valuable dis- 
covery. We trust Mr. Pickard will procure their 
early publication. 

LITERARY TASTE IN A NEW YORK POLICEMAN 
has been manifesting itself in the expert censorship 
of plays whose alleged immoral tendency has caused 
complaint. Sergeant Quackenbos, a scholar and a 
linguist, with especial mastery of French, reported 
the other day to Police Commissioner Copsey in 
regard to a certain doubtful dramatic production 
that he found nothing offensive in it, but added : 
" As to the relative merits of the play, personally 
I consider it weak and insipid, devoid of force and 
the plot much injured by the apparent effort to 
eliminate from it everything forceful and decided, 
with the evident intention of placing upon it a con- 
struction so loose and open that even the most 
biassed opinion should find no cause for reproach." 
The recent annual blue-book report of the London 
commissioner of police reveals a great variety of 
talents and accomplishments among the eighteen 
thousand quiet and gentlemanly guardians of the 
law in that vast metropolis, but contains no mention 
of any such critical taste and power of literary ex- 
pression as are possessed by Sergeant Quackenbos 
of New York. 



44 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



THE LIFE OF AX EMPIRE-BUILDER.* 

The flood of hasty biographies and other 
sketches of Cecil Rhodes that was let loose by 
his death in the spring of 1902 has long since 
subsided, and the season has arrived for a more 
deliberate and careful chronicling of the life- 
history of that remarkable man. A detailed ac- 
count of him and his phenomenal achievements 
as financier and empire-builder is presented in 
Sir Lewis Michell's two-volume work, " The 
Life and Times of the Right Honourable Cecil 
John Rhodes," and simultaneously a personally 
reminiscent view of the man in his prime, as 
he was known to one much older than he but 
interested in the same problems of public policy 
and statesmanship, comes from the pen of Sir 
Thomas E. Fuller in his volume entitled "The 
Right Honourable Cecil John Rhodes : a Mono- 
graph and a Reminiscence." South Africans 
both of them, these two authors have brought 
together enough details to make up a fairly 
complete portrait of their former friend and 
associate, painted however, as was to be ex- 
pected, with every advantage of a favorable 
light and a becoming posture, and with the 
almost inevitable softening of harsher lines. 

The main events of Rhodes's public life have 
long been too familiar to the world to render 
necessary here any recapitulation of them. 
Less stale and far more interesting will be a 
few glimpses of the inner workings of his mind, 
in boyhood and manhood, so far as they can be 
discerned, and an attempt to get clearly before 
us the ideals that inspired him and sustained 
him amidst the herculean labors he imposed on 
himself from an early age. That the two works 
above named furnish the material for forming 
a just estimate of the largeness of his ideals and 
of the vigor and originality of the mind that 
entertained them, will not be doubted when it is 
learned that the first-named of his biographers, 
as an executor and trustee under the will of 
Cecil Rhodes, has had free access to his private 
papers, while the other was on terms of some- 

*THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
CECIL JOHN RHODES, 1853-1902. By the Honourable Sir 
Lewis Michell, member of the Executive Council, Cape 
Colony. In two volumes. With portraits. New York: 
Mitchell Kennerley. 

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CECIL JOHN RHODES. A 
Monograph and a Reminiscence. By Sir Thomas E. Fuller, 
K.C.M.G., formerly member of the Legislative Assembly 
for the City of Cape Town, and subsequently Agent-General 
for the Cape of Good Hope. With portraits and other illus- 
trations. New York : Longmans, Green, & Co. 



thing like intimacy with him for more than 
twenty years. 

Sir Lewis Michell makes his hero's " dream 
of Empire" so early take possession of his 
thoughts that even as a child in plaided frock 
at Bishop's Stortford (where he was born in 
1853, being the fifth of nine sons presented to 
the Reverend Francis William Rhodes by his 
second wife, Louisa Peacock, a lady of good 
family), he is conceived of as already planning 
enterprises of imperial scope. At any rate, it 
appears true that he was early given to periods 
of abstraction, that the ordinary pursuits of his 
fellows failed to engross him, that when once 
interested in any project his concentration of 
thought and energy was remarkable, and that, 
as his biographer says, " to the last he was a 
shy and solitary spirit, full of strange silences, 
and with a reserve difficult to break through." 
Early symptoms of the ailment that finally over- 
came him sent the boy Cecil in 1870 to Natal, 
where an elder brother was already breaking 
virgin soil as a cotton planter. The compara- 
tive loneliness of the new life and the vastness 
of the new lands open to colonization and con- 
quest could not but favor the nursing of any 
projects of empire that the young English im- 
migrant may have been disposed to cherish. 
The discovery of diamonds in the Orange Free 
State about the time of his arrival in South 
Africa, with the subsequent opening of large 
diamond-bearing tracts to the inrushing miners, 
must have still further inflamed the youth's 
imagination. Seeing clearly the power of money 
to forward his schemes of British dominion, he 
very soon forsook the humdrum of farming and 
engaged in the fierce excitement of diamond- 
hunting, buying and selling claims, forming and 
consolidating mining companies, and in a won- 
derfully short space of time proving himself 
the coolest, boldest, most successful of all that 
host of strenuous and not too scrupulous wealth- 
seekers. 

Side by side with these plans of wealth and 
power, and rudely jostled by them, one would 
think, there were entertained other projects and 
wholly different ideals. When in the autumn 
of 1871 young Rhodes turned his back on farm- 
ing and started for Colesberg Kopje in a Scotch 
cart drawn by a yoke of oxen, he carried with 
him, beside a bucket and spade, several volumes 
of the classics and a Greek lexicon surely the 
strangest outfit known to the mining fraternity. 
An Oxford course and an Oxford degree were 
what the boy had set himself to obtain ; not that 
he was consumed with any burning thirst for 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



45 



academic knowledge, so far as can be judged, 
nor that he felt irresistibly drawn to the classics 
of Greece and Rome, but because he had calmly 
reasoned the matter out and decided that an 
Oxford degree would help him in the path he 
had marked out for himself. The charm of 
the ancient university, and the value of associa- 
tions there formed by the undergraduate, he felt 
and acknowledged to the full ; and throughout 
his life any reminder of his college days was sure 
to move him. The course at Oxford, much in- 
terrupted by necessary visits to South Africa, 
was at last completed and the coveted diploma 
obtained ; and the college (Oriel) that had con- 
sented to receive so irregular a student, after 
he had elsewhere been repulsed, profited thereby 
in due time, to the extent of one hundred thou- 
sand pounds. The story of the Rhodes scholar- 
ships, a fitting sequel to the tale, is now of 
course an old one. 

The young diamond-digger's sublime confi- 
dence in his future is splendidly attested in the 
magniloquent terms of a will that he caused to 
be drawn as early as 1877, when he was but 
twenty-four years old. In this remarkable 
document he leaves his entire estate (before he 
has acquired it) to Lord Carnarvon, then Secre- 
tary of State for the Colonies, and to his suc- 
cessors in office, and to his friend Sidney 
Godolphin Shippard of the Inner Temple, " in 
Trust," the purpose of the trust being, as 
formally stated, " to and for the establishment, 
promotion, and development of a Secret So- 
ciety, the true aim and object whereof shall be 
the extension of British rule throughout the 
world , the perfecting of a system of emigration 
from the United Kingdom, and of colonization 
by British subjects of all lands where the means 
of livelihood are attainable by energy, labor, 
and enterprise, and especially the occupation 
by British settlers of the entire Continent of 
Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the 
Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, 
the whole of South America," and so on, leav- 
ing scarcely a square foot of the uninhabited 
or uncivilized globe to other countries, and 
even providing for the " ultimate recovery of 
the United States of America as an integral 
part of the British Empire," and, best of all, 
seeking " finally, the foundation of so great a 
Power as to hereafter render wars impossible 
and promote the best interests of humanity." 

Of Rhodes's political honors and offices in 
the Cape Colony, and of his amazing success 
in amassing a fortune, with all the interesting 
and intricate intertwining of his political 



and his money-getting schemes and activities, 
nothing can here be said. Sir Lewis Michell's 
book goes into all that quite adequately, and 
the shorter work of Sir Thomas Fuller contains 
some additional particulars. The famous Jame- 
son Raid figures also as an important topic 
in ttoth books, the first-mentioned devoting 
nearly fifty pages to it and ending with the 
assertion that "the idea prevalent in some 
quarters that the inception of the Raid is still 
wrapped in mystery is wholly erroneous. The 
vital facts are all in print, and there are no 
unrevealed secrets." The two authors agree 
in making Rhodes by no means free from 
responsibility in the affair, but its importance 
as precipitating the Boer War is emphatically 
denied by one of them. Touching on the much- 
discussed " Kruger telegram " from the German 
Emperor at the time of the raid, Sir Lewis has 
this to offer respecting the subsequent interview 
between Rhodes and his Imperial Majesty : 

" I imagine that a verbatim report of the interview 
between Rhodes and the Emperor will never see the 
light of day, bat there is reason to believe that during 
their conversation the Emperor asked for his opinion 
of his famous ' Kruger telegram ' at the time of the 
Raid, and that Rhodes replied, ' I will tell you, your 
Majesty, in a very few words. It was the greatest 
mistake you ever made in your life, but you did me the 
best turn one man ever did another. You see, I was a 
naughty boy, and you tried to whip me. Now, my peo- 
ple were quite ready to whip me for being a naughty 
boy, but directly you did it, they said, " No, if this is 
anybody's business it is ours." The result was that 
your Majesty got yourself very much disliked by the 
English people, and I never got whipped at all ! '" 

An interesting consequence of this momentous 
interview, and a substantial proof of the favor- 
j able impression then made upon his South 
African guest by the Kaiser, was the inclusion 
of Germany among the Rhodes Scholarship 
beneficiaries, and the leaving of the selection 
of German Rhodes scholars entirely in his 
Majesty's hands. So, at least, we are led to 
believe. 

Turning from the larger work, whose author 
does not hesitate to acclaim his hero as " the 
greatest of modern Englishmen," we must say 
a few words in commendation of the smaller. 
Its evidences of the intimate acquaintance en- 
joyed by its author with Cecil Rhodes give it 
unquestioned value and vivid interest to the 
reader. Let us quote from an early page its 
description of Mr. Rhodes : 

" Mr. Rhodes was a tall, broad-shouldered man, with 
face and figure of somewhat loose formation. His hair 
was auburn, carelessly flung over his forehead, his eyes 
of bluish grey, dreamy but kindly. But the mouth 
aye, that was ' the unruly member ' of his face. With 



46 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



deep lines following the curve of the moustache, it had 
a determined, masterful, and sometimes scornful ex- 
pression. Men cannot, of course, think or feel with 
their mouths, but the thoughts of Cecil Rhodes soon 
found their way to that part of his face. At its best it 
expressed determined purpose at its worst, well, I 
have seen storms of passion gather about it and twist 
it into unlovely shapes. Neither sculptor nor painter 
knew just what to do with it." 

The indifference to small matters always 
shown by this large-patterned man is refreshing 
to read about. In dress, while he was at home 
in any costume, he took so slight heed of con- 
vention and fashion that, unless watched and 
warned by careful friends, he would many a 
time have shocked Mrs. Grundy by appearing 
in Scotch tweeds where broadcloth was de 
rigueur. The account of his home life and 
bachelor habits at Groote Schuur is agreeable 
reading, and the description of his library, 
where at great expense he had collected all the 
authorities consulted by Gibbon in writing his 
" Decline and Fall," forms one of the best 
chapters in the book. With its emphasis on the 
human and the more lovable side of the man, 
this fragmentary account of him admirably sup- 
plements the longer and more ambitious work. 

PERCY F. BICKNELL. 



A CRITICISM OF MODERN ART.* 



Mr. Babbitt has produced, in " The New 
Laokobn," a delightful and stimulating book. 
I recall nothing in recent years in the literature 
of aesthetics which is of the same interest. It 
has the charm of a broad view of historical 
changes and conditions, and the value of a 
soundly developed thought on matters of theory. 
It is an excellent book for people who feel 
mixed up or puzzled at the chaotic condition 
of ideals now current in music, painting, litera- 
ture ; who want a clue to find their way out of 
the labyrinth of dissolving views offered us by 
the latest excitements in each of the arts. And 
those who are not puzzled, and who like the 
excitement of constant experiment and change, 
will be interested in this effort to make matters 
a little more regular and systematic. Even the 
most extravagant may well enjoy this survey of 
their eccentricities, though they may not sym- 
pathize with the spirit which animates it. 

The Laokoon of Lessing, although a book of 
unique position, has not been so powerful an 
influence as a good many works which in 



*THE NEW LAOKOON. An Essay on the Confusion of 
the Arts. By Irving Babbitt. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. 



themselves could not claim the same eminence. 
There are many books or many critics, to be 
more exact that have impressed themselves on 
men's minds and action far more powerfully. 
Ruskin has been a far more powerful influence 
than Lessing, I should say ; and so has Taine. 
Indeed, one could count a score of rivals begin- 
ning with Winckelmann or Goethe, and coming 
down to Morelli and Anatole France. The 
chief idea of Lessing that was expressed in the 
Laokobn, the distinction between the functions 
of the different arts, was not heeded. On the 
other hand, the period following Lessing shows 
very great confusion between the aims and 
methods of the different arts, and very great 
enthusiasm in trying to make all the arts only 
different ways of doing the same things. Poets 
have emulated painters, and musicians poets. 
Painters have in general been content to paint ; 
but even among the painters there have been 
those who aimed at symphonies on the one hand, 
and those who were anxious to tell stories on 
the other. The immense production of art in 
the nineteenth century has resulted in an almost 
intoxicated delight in trying to do anything 
and everything with every or any art and in 
any and every way. 

It is this continued confusion and grand 
hurly burly that gives occasion to Mr. Babbitt 
for his survey of the conditions of artistic theory 
as we see it in the work of art since Lessing, 
and for his presentation of some critical can- 
ons designed to offer, if not a shelter in the time 
of storm, at least a breathing-space in a time 
of general artistic exhilaration and excitement. 
I think such an effort will be greeted with 
pleasure by many. The mere idea of there 
being such a book will, I am sure, be a relief 
to not a few who may never read it. There 
surely must be many who would be glad to stop 
looking at some grey thing of Whistler's and 
trying to find any symphony or any white in it, 
who would be glad to stop thinking they ought 
to find in Strauss anything philosophic or like 
Nietzsche, people who will like to stop skip- 
ping passages on persons or landscapes which 
mention all the colors of the rainbow but do 
not enable us to see any, or who will be glad to 
think it respectable to read a story or see a play 
that has no problem or message or criticism of 
life in it. 

Lessing failed to impress his contention upon 
the generations that followed him. He had a 
clear idea that there were definite forms of art 
which owed their charm and their power to 
being themselves and not something else. He 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



47 



spoke of the arts of poetry and painting, and 
distinguished between their possibilities ; but 
his understanding of what each should do or 
could do was based upon his understanding of 
what both tried to do. He believed that poetry 
must deal with things as viewed in the relation 
of time, and that painting should deal with 
them as they appeared in space ; but he held 
that both should present an imitation of nature. 
And, further, he was a classicist, in that he 
believed in having things clear-cut, rational, 
definite. To him, the main thing in poetry was 
a well-ordered fable ; in painting, a well-ordered 
composition. 

It is not unnatural, then, that a century like 
the nineteenth, in which the classic tradition 
was by no means binding in which, in fact, 
the rejection of classic aims and methods was 
almost an aim in itself, that such a time should 
have lost sight of the distinction whereby one 
might attain to classic result. 

Mr. Babbitt finds the key to all this confu- 
sion of effort and effect in the influence of 
Rousseau. Rousseau exalts the imagination; 
and one penetrated with the spirit of Rousseau, 
though he might be devoted to Nature, would 
scarcely endure the discipline of imitating or 
following her closely. It is not a picture of 
the world that romantic art is to give us : it is 
a record of the sensations of the romanticist as 
he views the world, and such a record of sensa- 
tions may easily stimulate our powers even to 
things that never were or could be in the 
world. The romanticist had not so much in 
mind to give an idea of what others were doing 
or had done as to stimulate one to do some- 
thing oneself or to think of doing it. " His 
aim," in Mr. Babbitt's words, " is not so much 
to paint action as to suggest reverie." 

In following out this idea, Mr. Babbitt deals 
especially with two directions of nineteenth 
century art, namely, word-painting and pro- 
gramme music, and handles them in a broad 
and excellent way. Programme music is some- 
thing which some think is the only music, and 
some think hardly music at all. It would cer- 
tainly seem that the fact that few people as a 
rule can tell what the music means unless they 
have the programme in hand or in mind, would 
make it doubtful if music was here dealing 
with what music could deal with ; but Mr. 
Babbitt presents many interesting examples, 
of which the one I like best is that of the man 
who was enthusiastic over the way that the 
master had indicated in his tone-poem " the 
whistling of the wind through the arms of a 



mill, but was told that what the master had 
really tried to render in this passage was the 
bleating of a flock of sheep !" Word painting 
includes the whole range of suggestive prose, 
as well as much modern poetry, where the idea 
of the writer is not to convey any definite idea 
of something he has seen or known, but to 
stimulate in the reader an imaginative range 
more or less like that which he experiences 
himself. We do not need to be told how im- 
portant these two forces have been in nine- 
teenth century art. 

Even more important, because the element 
is more penetrating, is Mr. Babbitt's discussion 
of the question of form and expression. Ro- 
manticism is lyric, in that it has always honored 
self-expression : even the realists who believed 
in the most detailed views of environment 
allowed that such views must be modified by the 
artist's temperament. And here Mr. Babbitt 
speaks of the novel, the most prolific if not the 
most important of the art-forms of the century : 
he says it is the form " that lends itself most 
naturally to all the meanders of feeling," to a 
vast overflow of " soul " in the romantic sense. 
But he is satisfied with suggesting this oppor- 
tunity for the triumph of expression over form 
(and certainly anybody can think of enough 
examples), and deals for the most part with 
scientific or philosophic manifestations of the 
same thing in nineteenth century thought. 

It is certainly a most interesting review,* 
and, as I have said, there must be many who 
will want to read it. It is a book that has some- 
thing for various classes of readers. Those 
who know the subject well will find it inter- 
esting, with much to agree or disagree with. 
Such a view of periods in literature or art is 
always interesting when done by a competent 
man, and we have here the addition of a theo- 
retical position on a burning question. But 
the book is by no means a mass of generaliza- 
tions ; in fact, Mr. Babbitt more commonly 
deals with special cases. So there will be 
many who will not be so much interested in 
the sweeps of aesthetic theory, who will be inter- 
ested in considering whether sky-scrapers are 
beautiful. Indeed, perhaps the ranging of many 
minor points into one general discussion is quite 
as valuable for the general reader as the making 
of large generalizations. What shall we think, 
for instance, of the vitality and ugliness of much 

* In what goes before 1 have allowed myself as a rule to 
use Mr. Babbitt's illustrations and now and then his own 
words and phrases without acknowledgment. Whatever is 
good is likely to be his. 



48 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



of Rodin ? Is there really any common sense in 
Bernard Shaw ? What is the use of a symbol 
in art ? How shall a man defend his still liking 
Mozart? What is to be done about Richard 
Strauss's depiction of the baby's bath, not only 
with full orchestra, but also fifty additional 
instruments, including four saxophones, a tri- 
angle, a glockenspiel, and a bass drum ? Or, to 
go further back, was Keats an Elizabethan born 
out of due season ? Was he all Greek ? Is the 
subject of Wordsworth's " Simon Lee " really a 
matter for fine poetry? What did Beethoven 
try to do in the " Pastoral Symphony"? And 
so on. Those things, or others of the same kind, 
are such things as people often argue about, 
with no idea of any principle to give them a 
starting-point. Mr. Babbitt's survey of romantic 
art gives them at least something to agree or 
disagree on. 

I have said but little, perhaps not enough, of 
the constructive part of this book. It is evident 
from the title that Mr. Babbitt believes that art 
can do most for the human spirit when each art 
does that for which it is especially adapted. The 
greater part of the essay is devoted to a con- 
sideration of what has happened when every 
artist did whatever he fancied at the moment. 
But the last part of the essay is more construc- 
tive, and presents something of an ideal of a 
right joining of appropriate form and genuine 
expression. The reader with some tincture of 
aesthetic will probably find this part of the book 
most interesting. Mr. Babbitt stands for an 
ideal of Humanism that is growing in charm 
every day ; though, as he admits, it cannot even 
now see the prospect of early dominance. 

I wish him good luck ! I must confess that 
I do n't quite know whether I agree with him 
or not. I am just now rather confused in my 
ideas in aesthetics. But I can at least appre- 
ciate such a brilliant and original study as this, 
even though it tries to overturn some of my 
favorites. EDWARD E. HALE, JR. 



MEN AND MANNERS OF COLONIAL, 
VIRGINIA.* 



With "The Institutional History of Vir- 
ginia in the Seventeenth Century," Dr. Philip 
Alexander Bruce has completed the publication 
of his studies in the first century of Virginia 

* INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF VIRGINIA IN THE SEVEN- 
TEENTH CENTURY. An Inquiry into the Religious, Moral, 
Educational, Legal, Military, and Political Condition of the 
People. By Philip Alexander Bruce, LL.IX In two vol- 
umes. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



history. In previous volumes he has pictured 
in detail the economic and social aspects of 
early times in the Old Dominion ; while in 
these two large volumes of 700 pages each he 
describes those institutions and conditions with 
which he has not already dealt. The work is 
therefore confined to a description of the politi- 
cal and administrative phases of colonial his- 
tory. But governmental activities had a wide 
range in those days, even though in a frontier 
community ; and they are here described in 
125 chapters which are arranged to cover the 
five general subjects of Religion and Morals, 
Education, Legal Administration, Military 
System, and Political Condition. Each subject 
is treated exhaustively, with a wealth of fact 
and illustration that may be somewhat weari- 
some to the general reader but will be eagerly 
welcomed by the student and the historian who 
may use this work, and the previous volumes, 
as the ultimate authority on the period treated. 
Nothing of importance has been neglected, and 
much that would be unimportant in the history 
of a later time is here developed at length as 
throwing light on the formative period of the 
first Anglo-American colony. None of the 
sources have been overlooked ; the author says 
that he has made " a personal examination of 
all the original documents bearing on the sub- 
ject preserved not only in this country but in 
the great English depositories." The work will 
be valuable not only for the immense amount 
of information which it contains, but also for 
the general conclusions not too many at 
which the author arrives after his thorough 
examination of the sources. 

Dr. Bruce looks upon his subject from the 
imperialistic the British point of view, not 
from the narrowly colonial standpoint ; that is, 
he considers seventeenth century Virginia as an 
outlying district of the Empire, an expansion 
of England in men, in manners and customs, 
and in institutions. The English inheritances 
were modified, though not radically, by the 
necessities of a frontier environment, and not 
by intention. No other of the Anglo-American 
colonies was so like Mother England. The 
author says of this fact : 

" In considering retrospectively the different condi- 
tions prevailing in Virginia during the seventeenth 
century, the historian is deeply impressed with its close 
resemblance in all the varied aspects of its life, save 
the agricultural alone, to the mother country. The 
colony had been settled, not, like New England, by the 
representatives of a single section of the English people, 
namely, those in sympathy with a special phase of relig- 
ious belief and its austere social influences, but by rep- 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



49 



resentatives of the English people at large, who were 
profoundly devoted to the monarchical principles, to the 
doctrines of the Anglican Church, and to the liberal 
and generous social traditions of their race. The con- 
ditions observed in Virginia were, as a consequence, 
much nearer to those which, in these early times, gave 
a distinctive character to an English community; it was 
much more a segment of the mother country, because 
more reflective of the typical diversities of life and 
thought there, indeed, it can be justly said that Vir- 
ginia, in the seventeenth century, resembled England 
as closely as it was possible for a sparsely settled colony 
of small wealth, situated in a remote quarter of the 
globe, to do." 

In nothing did the colony resemble England 
more than in its religions establishment and in 
its moral standards. The church organization, 
with its parish, vestry, tithes, and glebe, was 
the Anglican establishment on a small scale ; 
the chief but important difference being that 
the clergymen held their places not permanently, 
but by the year, at the pleasure of the vestry. 
Of the beginning of the Church in English 
America, the author gives some details of in- 
terest. The first church edifice consisted of a 
sailcloth tied to the trunks of trees. 

" As thus spread out, it afforded an ample shelter 
from the rays of the sun. The walls of this impover- 
ished sacred edifice were made of rails mauled from 
timber procured on the spot; the seats, of round and 
unhewed logs ; and the pulpit, of a bar of wood nailed 
to two trees. When the sky became overcast and rain 
fell, the services were held in a large tent brought over 
from England. . . . [The second church] was made 
apparently of rough sawn planks or unhewed logs, in 
the shape of a barn; the roof was covered with rafts, 
sedge, and earth; and so, we are informed, were the 
walls; while the weight of the whole rude structure 
rested upon crotchets." 

Church-going was enforced by law, and any 
breaches of morality were punished by severe 
penalties. After careful study, Dr. Bruce con- 
cludes that on the whole the Virginia clergy 
were not generally " of loose lives and ungodly 
conversation," but averaged as good as those of 
England at the same time, and that the people 
were religious, and more moral than their En- 
glish contemporaries. Since the Church was a 
department of the State, the activity of the 
government in ecclesiastical affairs is fully 
described. The following quotations show that 
New England had no monopoly of stringent 
church rules : 

" Whoever omitted going to church was punished 
for the first offence by the loss of his day's allowance ; 
for the second, by a severe whipping; and for the third, 
by his condemnation to the galleys for a period of six 
months. Profanation of God's name by an unlawful 
oath was, for the second offence, to be punished with a 
bodkin's thrust through the tongue; and for the third, 
with death; and the penalty of death also was to be 



paid by whoever stole one of the sacred articles belong- 
ing to the church building. . . . During the seventeenth 
century the supervision exercised by the authorities to 
ensure a proper observance of the Sabbath was, in some 
respects, quite as strict in Virginia as it was in New 
England, where the stern and austere code of the Puri- 
tans was so rigidly enforced in all the departments of 
life. Even the most trivial violations of the sacred 
character of the day were invariably punished ; and this 
seems all the more remarkable in a community where 
all the amusements and pleasures within the people's 
reach were heartily encouraged provided they were 
not carried to a point dangerous to the peace and 
moral health of society." 

But in time the innumerable influences of the 
frontier and the reaction against the formalism 
of the Anglican Church resulted in the rise of 
dissent, not of the Puritan kind, for Puritanism 
no more than persecution could exist in such a 
sparsely settled region, but of the more liberal 
and emotional kind. Dr. Bruce says of the 
cause and growth of dissent: 

Loyal as the great mass of the people were to the 
Church of England, as represented in their ministers 
and parish churches, there was nothing in the manner 
in which it imparted its religious consolations to vivify, 
from time to time, the religious instincts of its congre- 
gations in the spirit of the modern religious revival. 
Now this was precisely what the early Quakers did. 
They found in those thinly settled and remote commu- 
nities a population strongly disposed by their situation 
to religious thought, and ready to fall almost headlong 
into indulgence of religious emotions as soon as that 
chord in their hearts was touched. The missionaries 
of the sect made a direct appeal at the very heart. 
Religion dropped the formalities of the liturgy and 
spoke to the spirit in the language of every day. It 
became personal, urgent, irresistible. It is not at all 
improbable that nothing but the unpractical features of 
Quakerism prevented a far more general conversion to 
that faith than seems to have really occurred." 

The chapters on education as fostered by 
the government bring out new and interesting 
information. Strong public sentiment in favor 
of free education existed ; but this, the author 
shows, could not become effective because of the 
thinly scattered population. Those who were 
able had tutors at their homes for their children, 
and later sent them to England. Like the 
classic pedagogue, these tutors were frequently 
purchased servants. One colonist leaves by 
will a sum for the purchase of a teacher of 
English and Latin for his children ; another 
purchases one Thomas Hellier, promising him 
that he is to be a tutor and not be required to 
work as a field-hand except when there is an 
extraordinary demand for labor and then only 
" for a short spurt." A college was early pro- 
jected, but not until late in the century was 
the College of William and Mary established. 
When James Blair was in England in behalf of 



50 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



a college, he represented to Lord Seymour that 
it would help the church. Seymour thought a 
college unnecessary. " But, my Lord," remon- 
strated Blair, " the colonists have souls to save." 
" Souls ! Damn their souls ! " was the reply ; 
" make tobacco." The greater number of the 
children, however, were taught the rudiments 
in the Old Field School." 

" Such a school was established at some spot in con- 
venient reach of every boy and girl in a whole neigh- 
borhood. In order to insure this, it was customary to 
build the schoolhouse in some old field, long abandoned 
to pine and broom-straw, which occupied a central situa- 
tion; and here, during the hours when the school session 
was not in progress, the building remained locked, 
vacant, and silent; but during the hours of instruction 
it was filled with the murmurs of recitation, and the con- 
fused sound of whispering tongues and shuffling feet. 
From the adjacent forest came fee voices of birds sing- 
ing in the branches, and in winter the roar of the wind 
in the bare treetops. The whole scene was marked by 
the spirit of extreme remoteness and seclusion; and only 
the presence of the shouting and dancing children in the 
hours of play, or the smoke curling up from the chimney 
in the hours of work, gave it any apparent connection 
with the world of human beings." 

By studies of the records, of wills, and of 
voting-lists, the author decides that the propor- 
tion of illiterates in the entire white population 
was in the last quarter of the century a little 
less than half ; but only a fourth of the women 
could read. Books, which were always valued in 
terms of tobacco, were somewhat plentiful, and 
there was a fair degree of culture. 

For defense, the colony had only the old 
English militia based upon the principle of the 
Assize of Arms ; arms and ammunition were 
strangely scarce, and the authorities as well as 
the people were sometimes very apprehensive 
of foreign Indian attacks, and were correspond- 
ingly relieved when the danger was passed. 
Governor Berkeley, in 1666, after a threatened 
attack by the Dutch, wrote to Charles II. : " As 
we are further out of danger, so we approach 
nearer to Heaven with our prayers that your 
Sacred Majesty's enemies may either drink the 
sea or bite the dust." 

The law of Virginia was the law of England 
in spirit and in letter ; but the court system 
was much simpler than the English, the proced- 
ure less complicated, and the justice dispensed 
was not only law but equity. Lawyers and law 
books were few. A very remarkable contrast 
with English conditions was the administration 
of criminal law. Where in England three hun- 
dred offenses were punishable by death, less than 
half a dozen led to the gallows in Virginia. In 
the administration of criminal law the colony 
was a century and a half in advance of the 



mother country. But if the punishments were 
not brutal they were at least numerous in kind ; 
hanging, fine, imprisonment, the lash, the white 
sheet, tying neck and heels, the wooden horse, 
the stocks, the pillory, ducking, and public 
apology, are among the examples given. Since 
the jails were only ten feet by fifteen, we may 
assume that prisoners were few. 

Tracing the early political institutions, Dr. 
Bruce shows that the House of Burgesses, 
which "broke out" in 1619, was a natural 
development and not an unexpected happening. 
However, the event was of extraordinary im- 
portance. 

"It was not until 1618 that the first legislative as- 
sembly of English-speaking people to convene in the 
Western Hemisphere met at Jamestown; and from that 
year, which was made forever memorable by this great 
event, to the present date, there has been no discontinu- 
ance in practice of the principle of popular representa- 
tion within the area of country covered by the modern 
United States." 

In summing up, Dr. Bruce finds that in 
several rather important particulars Virginia 
was unlike England : the agricultural system 
was extensive, not intensive ; slave labor was a 
main reliance ; there was no law of primogeni- 
ture ; land titles were recorded, not kept in pri- 
vate control ; legal administration was simple ; 
clergy were hired by the year; manhood suf- 
frage gave a democratic assembly; public ser- 
vice was paid for. These influences tended to 
make a different people of the Virginians, but 
there were stronger ones which tended to make 
Virginia a new England, the common English 
descent of the people; the presence of the sev- 
eral classes of society ; the purely English social 
peculiarities ; the education of leaders in Eng- 
land ; the Anglican establishment ; the system 
of large estates ; the identity of moral and relig- 
ious standards ; and, finally, the similarity of 
legal and political institutions. Early Virginia 
history is therefore the history of the successful 
transplanting of English institutions under con- 
ditions different from those of England, and of 
the successful development and modification of 
those institutions. Of the supreme importance 
of the expansion of England into America, Dr. 
Bruce says in closing: 

" If to-morrow a vast wave from the Atlantic, set in 
motion by some appalling convulsion of nature, should 
sink England forever below the level of the ocean, and 
thus destroy the last remnant of her population and the 
last vestige of her cities and her fields, yet in her spirit, 
which represents all that is highest in nations as in 
individual men, she would still survive in that great 
power over sea, whose seed she planted, whose growth 
she nourished, and whose chief claim to the respect of 
mankind will always be in upholding those general 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



51 



ideas of law, government, and morality, which its peo- 
ple inherited from the little island lying like an emerald 
in the stormy seas of the North. From this point of 
view, the foundation of Jamestown becomes the greatest 
of all events in the modern history of the Anglo-Saxon 
race, and one of the very greatest in the history of the 
world. From this point of view also the conditions 
prevailing in colonial Virginia the foremost and most 
powerful of all of the English dependencies of that 
day, and the one which adopted the English principles 
and ideas most thoroughly, and was most successful in 
disseminating them becomes of supreme interest; for 
from these conditions was to spring the characteristic 
spirit of one of the greatest of modern nationalities; 
and from these conditions was to arrive a permanent 
guarantee that, whatever might be the fate of England 
herself, the Anglo-Saxon conception of social order, poli- 
tical freedom, individual liberty, and private morality, 
should not perish from the face of the earth." 

WALTER L. FLEMING. 



A FAMOTJS PUBLISHER OF THE 18TH 



Most students of the drama and of eighteenth- 
century poetry are familiar with Dodsley's " Col- 
lection of Plays " and " Collection of Poems," 
usually called "Dodsley's Miscellany "; but 
many people will be surprised to learn how 
important Robert Dodsley was in his own 
generation, not only as a publisher but as a 
poet and playwright. It is strange that a man 
so prominent in the literary circles of London 
between 1735 and 1764 the friend of Pope, 
of Shenstone, of Johnson, of the Wartons, of 
Bishop Percy, and publisher for all of them 
should have been so neglected by literary his- 
torians. But it is so ; for Robert Dodsley has 
received only casual mention even from the men 
who know that period best. It is a pleasure, 
therefore, to find that Mr. Ralph Straus, the 
author of " Robert Dodsley, Poet, Publisher, 
and Playwright," has not only made a welcome 
contribution to the history of English literature 
in the eighteenth century, but has done an 
exceptionally careful and satisfactory piece of 
work. 

Dodsley began his literary career in 1729, 
with " Servitude, a Poem. . . Written by a Foot- 
man," and if one came upon only that work, or 
its successor of 1732, " A Muse in Livery : or 
the Footman's Miscellany," one might be ex- 
cused for thinking him merely another mildly 
interesting phenomenon, like Taylor the Water 
Poet, or Stephen Duck the Thresher Poet. 
But Dodsley published, in February, 1735, his 

* ROBERT DODSLEY, POET, PUBLISHER, A>T> PLAY- 
WRIGHT. By Ralph Straus. Illustrated. New York : John 
Lane Co. 



" Toy-shop, a Dramatick Satire," which went 
into a fourth edition in April, and a sixth before 
the year was out ; moreover, the " Toy-Shop " 
was popular on the stage of both the theatres. 
" The King and the Miller of Mansfield," which 
followed in 1737, was a favorite on the stage 
for many years. In 1740 came his " Chronicle of 
the Kings of England," in style a parody of the 
Bible ; and in 1750, " The CEconomy of Human 
Life," a series of maxims. All of these went 
through numerous editions and translations, and 
must have been among the " best sellers" of 
their time. Dodsley's tragedy of " Cleone," in 
1758, was a less pronounced success, but far 
from a failure. In addition, among clever 
epigrams and mediocre verses Dodsley achieved 
one song which his biographer rightly calls 
" near to immortality," " One kind kiss before 
we part." It is evident, therefore, that Robert 
Dodsley is by no means a negligible figure in 
the literature of the age of Johnson. 

It is as a publisher, of course, that Dodsley 
is of most interest and importance. Mr. Straus 
gives a good deal of space to an illuminating 
discussion of his business shrewdness notably 
his acceptance of Joseph Warton's " Odes " 
and his refusal to publish Collins's and devotes 
over seventy pages to a very careful bibliog- 
raphy of the books he issued. Dodsley may 
well have been proud of his books. Consider 
this brief list of the most notable : Glover's 
" Leonidas "; Pope's " Letters." as well as some 
of his poems; Johnson's "London," "Vanity 
of Human Wishes," " Irene," " Rasselas," and 
his "Dictionary"; Shenstone's "Schoolmis- 
tress "; Young's " Night Thoughts "; Aken- 
side's " Pleasures of Imagination "; Joseph 
Warton's " Odes " and his " Essay on Pope "; 
Spence's " Polymetis "; Gray's " Ode on a 
Distant Prospect of Eton," and his " Elegy "; 
Paltock's "Peter Wilkins," and Fielding's 
" Amelia "; Voltaire's " Siecle de Louis XIV.," 
and Lowth's " De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum "; 
Gilbert West's " Odes of Pindar," and Tom 
Warton's " Observations on the Faery Queen "; 
Dyer's "Fleece"; Burke's "Account of the 
European Settlements in America," and his 
" Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful "; the 
second edition of Walpole's " Catalogue of 
Royal and Noble Authors "; the London edi- 
tions of " Tristram Shandy " and the " Sermons 
of Mr. Yorick "; Percy's " Five Pieces of Runic 
Poetry" and " Reliques " (this last after Robert 
Dodsley's death); Evans's " Specimens of the 
Welsh Bards," and Goldsmith's " Enquiry into 
the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe." 



52 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



One of the noteworthy things about this list is 
that it represents not merely Classicism or 
Romanticism, but practically all the literary 
currents of the age. 

It is to be regretted that Mr. Straus did not 
give us more information about those details of 
printing in the eighteenth century which are 
so useful and so very hard for even the special 
student to come by. He never tells us, for 
instance, how large an "edition " was; and yet 
it is to be presumed some information on the 
subject was accessible to him in Dodsley's 
papers. It is a pity, too, that he did not sup- 
plement his bibliography by an analysis of its 
contents, since it is too long for many generali- 
zations to be obvious, and yet examination 
brings to light much that is interesting. For 
example, we find that in the thirty years of 
Dodsley's career as a publisher he issued over 
seven hundred books, of which nearly half are 
poems or plays though the plays form only 
a small fraction and under ten per cent are 
religious. Essays, letters, scientific and his- 
torical works, do not quite equal the poetry. 
It is significant, too, both of the taste of 
Dodsley's generation and of his own judgment 
as a publisher, that nearly a third of the poems 
and plays went into two or more editions. His 
list of fiction includes only twenty-six titles, 
but fourteen of them were reprinted at least 
once. Of the dozen books which went into six 
or more editions, three were of Dodsley's own 
making his "Toy-shop," his "Miscellany," 
and his " (Economy of Human Life "; among 
the others were the " Night Thoughts," the 
" Elegy," the " Pleasures of Imagination," 
Cotton's now forgotten " Visions in Verse," an 
alteration of " Comus," and an Anatomy. 

Examination of the bibliography shows fur- 
ther that over three-fifths of Dodsley's books 
sold for one shilling six pence or less, and only 
about one-tenth for over six shillings. Dodsley's 
highest priced book was Johnson's Dictionary, 
the two volumes of which sold for four pounds 
ten shillings ; but Dodsley shared the risks with 
five other publishers. The most expensive books 
which Dodsley issued by himself were an 
" England Illustrated " in two volumes at fifty- 
six shillings, Spence's "Polymetis" at forty- 
two shillings six pence, " L'Ecole des Armes " 
at forty-two shillings, and the " Memoirs of 
Clanrickarde " at thirty-one shillings six pence. 
Dodsley and Tonson together issued at fifty shil- 
lings a two-volume " Don Quixote " ( Jarvis's 
translation), which went into a third edition. 
Mr. Straus speaks of the frequency with which 



Dodsley shared the risks and profits of books 
with other publishers, but does not point out 
that these partnerships were about as often 
in shilling and sixpenny books as in more ex- 
pensive ones. 

In comparison with Dodsley, the Newberys 
between 1740 and 1800 published about five 
hundred and fifty books less than four-fifths as 
many as Dodsley in twice the length of time. 
Less than a sixth of the Newberys' publications 
were poems or plays ; and out of some eighty 
books of fiction, a majority were sixpenny or 
shilling abridgments of "Robinson Crusoe," 
" Clarissa," " Don Quixote," and the like. The 
Newberys made a specialty of juvenile books, 
which formed more than a third of their output. 
This last fact explains why the Newberys sold 
more than a third of their books for sixpence 
or less, as against a sixth of Dodsley's. The 
Newberys far outstripped Dodsley in frequent 
editions, but have only Goldsmith to put against 
Dodsley's long list of notable authors. Hasty 
examination of a modern publisher's catalogue, 
which contains some 1500 titles in general 
literature, shows that nearly ten per cent of his 
books sell for six dollars or over, and only 
about five per cent for less than forty cents 
clear evidence of the increased market for 
expensive books, as well as of the decline of 
the old practice of issuing single essays and 
poems as pamphlets. 

In what Mr. Straus has done, however, he 
has been exceptionally accurate and thorough, 
as will be evident from this very brief list of 
additions and corrections all the reviewer 
could find after a good deal of checking up : 

P. 47. Johnson's "London" is said to have 
appeared in May, but on p. 319 the Bibliog- 
raphy records two editions in April. 

P. 86. Swift's " Directions to Servants " was 
" issued posthumously on Feb. 13th, 1746." 
That was the date of the second edition, ac- 
cording to the Bibliography, which records the 
first edition on Oct. 31, 1745, less than two 
weeks after Swift's death. 

P. 319. Ogle's imitations of Horace's First 
and Third Epistles in 1738 have the comment : 
" Other Epistles seem to have been published 
at the same time." Ogle's imitation of the 
Second Epistle appeared in 1735 ; see B.M. 
11630. c. 10 (4). 

P. 325. " Katherine Phillips " was a pseu- 
donym of James Bramston. 

P. 327. The University of Chicago has a 
copy of " Grobianus, or the Compleat Booby, 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



53 



by Roger Bull, Esq. London : printed for 
T. Cooper. Price bound 4s. 1739." 

P. 329. Unless my notes are wrong, B.M. 
643. 1. 28 (14) is a copy of the first edition 
of " The Alarm." 

P. 337. " Venus and Ardella " should be 
" Venus and Ardelia." 

P. 337. The University of Chicago's copy of 
Johnson's " Irene " has on the title-page " as it 
is acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane." 

P. 339. The Harvard Library has a copy 
of West's " Pindar." 

P. 340. The University of Chicago has a 
copy of " The Complaint. . . printed for A. 
Millar ... and R.D. . . 1750." 

P. 340. " Penshurst " was by Francis Cov- 
entry; see Dodsley's "Collection," 1758, 4. 50. 

P. 340. Add": Fawkes, (Francis). The 
Works of Anacreon, Sappho, Bion, Moschus, 
and Musaeus," &c., 3s. Advertised in Public 
Ledger, Apr. 1, 1750: "Subscribers are de- 
sired to send for their books immediately to 
Messrs. Dodsley or Newbery." 

P. 340. " Peter Wilkins "was by Robert 
Paltock. 

P. 341. Add: Smart (Christopher). Poet- 
ical Works. The Gen. Evening Post, Aug. 
4, 1750, has proposals for one volume, 4to, at 
10s. 6d., to be delivered 20th Feb., 1751, on ap- 
plication to Bathurst, Dodsley, or Newbery. 

P. 347. The University of Chicago has a 
copy of "Pompey the Little. Printed for 
M. Cooper, 1751." 

P. 350. " Some Reflections on . . . Boadicia" 
is, I think, by Dr. Pemberton. 

P. 353. " The Fable of Cebes " should be 
the " Table of Cebes." 

P. 354. The entries for Dec. on this page 
should be for Jan. 

Pp. 354 and 361. Balby (Geo.) should be 
Bally. 

P. 362. " Theatrical Records." The Uni- 
versity of Chicago has " Theatrical Records ; or 
an Account of English Dramatic Authors and 
their Works. London : Printed for R. & J. 
Dodsley . . . 1756." 

P. 363. Boyce's " Poems " were published 
this year by Dodsley, Newbery, and one other. 
See "A Bookseller of the Last Century," 176. 

Pp. 371 and 372. The " Letters of Lady 
Juliet Catesby," &c., were by Frances Brooke, 
as recorded on p. 383. 

P. 372. Add : " Comus, . . . London : 
Printed for A. Millar . . . 1760." 

P. 373. The "Memoirs of Miss Sidney 
Biddulph " were by Mrs. Frances Sheridan. 



P. 378. Five Pieces of Runic Poetry " 
was published anonymously by Thomas Percy. 
There are copies at the Universities of Chicago 
and Pennsylvania. 

P. 381. "Brooke (Sarah)" should be 
" Brooke (Frances)." 

EDWARD PAYSON MORTON. 



A GROUP OF L.OXG POEMS.* 

The central situation of " Measure for Measure " 
becomes the theme of " Pietro of Siena," a new 
dramatic poem by Mr. Stephen Phillips. This 
tragedy manquS is worked out in three brief acts 
of blank verse, all the scenes falling between sun- 
set of one day and sunrise of the day following. 
Pietro Tornielli has captured Siena, and the tyrant 
Luigi Gonzago is condemned to death. But his 
sister Gemma pleads for his life, and Pietro, fasci- 
nated by her beauty, bargains for her body as the 
price of release. When they meet that night, she 
so arouses the stirrings of his nobler nature that he 
foregoes his lustful purpose, and vows to make her 
his lawful wife. The following lines will show with 
what eloquence Gemma appeals to the tempter : 

" You ghost, with but the vantage of the grave, 
O lover with cold murder on your lips, 
Bridegroom whose gift is blood, whose dower is death ! 
Ah, what a tryst ! What moonlight ever saw 
Such a forbidden rapture as is this '.' 
Then take me in your arms, but never me ! 
Or kiss these lips where lips have ceased to move. 
Fool, can you understand in your wild blood 
That never shall yon reach me on these terms ? 
How can yon drink my beauty, if no soul 
Makes the draught live ? You bargain for a bliss, 
But no bliss from a bargain ever came. 
That bliss may be too sudden, may be slow, 
Howe'er it come ; but it is thoughten wise, 
Not planned, not calculated ; be it sin 
Or fire of angels, not this way it comes, 
Nor ever hath : now to thy lips I yield 
My own, but with a cold laugh in my soul, 
Or else in dreadful thought thy kiss I take. 
Now thou art master ; thy brief hour demand ! 
But had I loved thee, Pietro, not this way 
Would I have clasped thee, but in sacred fire, 
And then shonldst thou have tasted of deep life ; 
Then not of flesh but of the endless soul." 

* PIETRO OF SIENA. A Drama. By Stephen Phillips. 
New York : The Macmillan Co. 

THE NEW INFERNO. By Stephen Phillips. New York : 
John Lane Co. 

DANTE. A Dramatic Poem. By Heloise Durant Rose. 
New York : Mitchell Kennerley. 

THE BBEAKING OF BONDS. A Drama of the Social 
Unrest. By Arthur Davison Ficke. Boston : Sherman, 
French & Co. 

SIGURD. A Poem. By Arthur Peterson. Philadelphia : 
George W. Jacobs & Co. 

A MIDSUMMER MEMORY. An Elegy on the Death of 
Arthur Upson. By Richard Burton. Minneapolis : Edmund 
D. Brooks. 

THE HAPPY TEACHER. By Melville B. Anderson. 
New York : B. W. Huebsch. 



54 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



It is a little puzzling, after these heroics, to note 
with what alacrity she accepts the new legal " bar- 
gain " proposed hy Pietro, and how cheerfully the 
brother acquiesces when the news releases him from 
imminent death at the sunrise hour. Such changes 
of heart are not exactly reasonable when brought 
about within the narrow limits which the author's 
setting have allowed him. 

" Dreaming in starless night, it seemed that I, 
Lifted in spirit arms, was outward borne, 
Beyond the steadfast boundaries of the earth 
And the invisible orb of the vast sun. 

" Then was I 'ware that one beside me was, 
Whom I felt speaking rather than heard speak. 

4 One whom thou lovest and who still loves thee 
Despatched me to thy side,' the spirit said." 

Thus opens '' The New Inferno," a second contribu- 
tion by Mr. Phillips to the season's literature, tak- 
ing the form of a blank verse poem in nine cantos, 
each divided into quatrains as above shown. It is a 
sophisticated modern Inferno into which the spirit 
guide takes us, although it emphasizes the old idea 
of Dante, the idea that the after life brings punish- 
ment which is the logical consequence of earthly sin. 
Thus we find Napoleon imprisoned in a dreary world 
of ice, and Torquemada writhing in the flames. 
These are the only historical figures of the vision, 
which is otherwise concerned with types of lust and 
violence. The lesson of the poem is found in the 
following quatrains : 

" For now I see that Hell no city is, 
Nor place appointed, that no judge presides, 
Nor our Creator in his anger sits 
To sentence, and to punish the free soul. 

" Far worse ! the stain contracted leaves us not. 
No deepest grave obliterates a fault, 
But to the Earth the immortal spirit clings, 
And being spirit in greater madness burns." 

There are five passages in this poem, but we do not 
think that, on the whole, it will add materially to 
the author's reputation. 

Mr. Phillips uses the great name of Dante as a 
peg upon which to hang his own philosophical mus- 
ings, but it is the historical Florentine of whom we 
read in Miss Rose's fine dramatic poem. This 
" Dante," a work in four acts, takes up the principal 
happenings of the poet's life, from the factional strife 
and the broil of politics in his native city, through 
the years of exile at Verona and elsewhere, to the 
peaceful end at Ravenna. The first three acts are 
concerned with the events which lead up to his ban- 
ishment, the plot whereby he is persuaded to make 
Gemma Donati his wife, and the death of Beatrice. 
The fourth act sets forth the story of his closing 
years. Our illustrative extract shall be the ending 
of the work, the last words placed upon the lips of 
the dying poet. 

" Come closer, shades. What, do ye fly my touch ? 
Hath woe not purified my flesh enow ? 
Must my poor soul, still sighing, sit within 
The adamantine prison of the flesh ? 
Hath it not even reached an outer door 
Where through some blessed chink it spies beyond 



Its kin at rest, care-free, in sweet Elysium ? 

Fed on the tree of life in Paradise, 

When perfect grown, must these new spirits swing 

The incense of their love and praise alone 

In Heaven's domes ? Shall not some holy breath 

Be wafted down from them to earth again, 

Sweetening our lives and cleansing us from sin, 

And so let those above by mystic tie 

Be linked to what they were in living men ? 

O Beatrice, such pure soul as thine 

Needs lower stoop than most, to reach us here. 

Madonna, at thy feet I lay my love ; 

0, lift it to thy bosom, let it lie, 

Like scented blossom, lightly, near thy heart. 

Still silent, blessed one ? Thine eyes speak only ; 

Thou standest near the Church enthroned in glory, 

Beside the Rose of Heaven, the Virgin Mother, 

Who shineth, clothed in light eternally. 

Even thou even thou art Beatrice ! 

Stretch out thy holy hands ; help me to thee ! 

let my faltering tongue find power 

So that a spark of all thy glory trail 

Resplendent through all centuries to come, 

Lit by the love that moves the sun and stars, 

That gives me God and Florence Beatrice " 

This passage shows how deftly the author has made 
use of the Dantean phrase, weaving it into the fabric 
of her verse. There are other passages in which 
she reproduces the poet's recorded words more 
exactly, introducing them as literal quotations, thus 
avoiding the insuperable difficulty of inventing fit 
words of her own for the significant moments of the 
action. The whole work is done in a spirit of the 
deepest sympathy and reverence, and is marked by 
the scholarly acquaintance with the subject without 
which a work of dramatic effectiveness, such as this 
work distinctly is, could not have been produced. 

The politics of Florence, with their shibboleths 
of faction and their insolent individual ambitions, 
bear little apparent resemblance to our modern poli- 
tics, swayed by social and economic forces, and con- 
tending upon a scale unimaginable in the Italy of 
the Middle Ages. Yet poetry, seeing in all such 
struggles but varying manifestations of the unchang- 
ing soul of men, and viewing them all sub specie 
CBternitatis, may discern a kind of underlying unity 
in the most diverse expressions of the human spirit. 
Thus we do not seem to pass into a wholly different 
sphere when we turn from the old-world strife of 
Guelph with Ghibelline to the new-world strife of 
capital with labor if only we approach both themes 
under the idealistic guidance of the poet. It is a 
poem in dramatic form, " The Breaking of Bonds," 
by Mr. Arthur Davison Ficke, that brings before 
our gaze the social unrest of modern life with a 
degree of imaginative power that raises the subject 
from the temporal to the eternal plane, and corre- 
lates it with subjects that might upon first thought 
seem better fitted for poetic treatment. Mr. Ficke, 
taking Shelley for his exemplar, seeks to forecast the 
shaping of a new earth out of the miserable place of 
our present abode. He says : " I have expressed 
in the following pages neither a political plan, nor 
a carefully rounded and utterly impossible scheme 
urged on the world for adoption. I have merely 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



55 



taken as a beginning the social hostility of to-day ; 
I have transported it into the world of imagination ; 
and there let the dramatic forces inherent in the 
situation work out what I conceive to be their nat- 
ural equilibrium." Mr. Ficke's method is highly 
symbolical. His characters are abstractions and 
spirits, like those employed by Moody in " The 
Masque of Judgment " or by Mr. Hardy in " The 
Dynasts." There are choruses of the Men who 
Labor, the Masters of Wealth, and the Wise Men, 
there is the Watcher on the Tower, and there are 
the Spirits of Beauty and of Power, of the Cities 
and of the Hills, and the Spirit of the Eighth Day 
of Creation. It is this last-named Spirit upon whose 
shoulders the burden of prophecy is laid, and who, 
after the cataclysm which has laid waste what we 
now call civilization, gives heart to stricken man- 
kind in such noble words as these : 

" One thing alone is worth your straining toil, 
To seek that way which in good time shall lead 
Up toward the fairer future of mankind. 
Deep in the soul of each must rise the dream 
Of man with higher powers, man more divine ; 
Flooded with light whose spark was on his brow 
When he emerged from out creation's deeps, 
The wonder and the mystery of the world. 
As from the brute he grew in ages past, 
A greater passion of exalted life 
Shall thrill and glorify him, till he rise 
Godlike and wingeVl with his destiny. 
Such is the fate I give and ye must take. 
This is your pole-star. Crown nor crucifix 
Suffice for this ; but in each secret heart 
The light must spring, a more than mortal sense 
Of ages leading ever toward new heights ; 
That the far generations, sweeping on, 
Shall each see clearer, and descry at last 
What wondrous destiny lies free to man. 

But far in distant ages, all the years 
Of weary toil shall turn to their fulfilment. 
The lesser fails ; the higher shall endure ; 
And in the end, the Promised Land shall spread 
Its vast aerial valleys at men's feet. . 

Greater mankind shall walk the walls of heaven 
Yet never dreamed. And from the cloudy night 
Of man's long martyrdom shall come the dawn." 

It is the Watcher who has the last word, and he 
gives it this fine Swinburnian turn : 

" New Masters may rise, 
But they shall not endure. 
We shall push our emprise 
Past each barrier and lure 

Through ways that are dim, to an end that is 
clear, with a hope that is sure. 

" Crowns of gold or of thorn 
Are as phantoms that pale 
In the infinite dusk ; 
Yet one crown shall not fail, 
Yea, the crown of man's ultimate freedom that 
over the world shall prevail." 

Mr. Ficke has given us a poem that is well worth 
while, a poem that is intensely modern in feeling 
and at the same time true to the English tradition 
of what is permissible and what is not, of what is 
desirable and what is to be shunned. 



It is somewhat venturesome, after the superb 
treatment of the subject by William Morris, for 
anyone to attempt anew a " Sigurd " epic. But we 
think that Mr. Arthur Peterson's poem has justified 
the venture, and we have read with much pleasure 
his new version of the greatest of all Teutonic leg- 
ends. His style is simple and his narrative straight- 
forward, as befits a theme which needs neither 
rhetorical adornment nor constructive artifice for its 
setting forth. As he retells the story, it seems to 
combine the essentials of the Nibelungenenlied ver- 
sion with some of the variations made familiar by 
the Wagnerian cycle. It deals mainly with the 
scenes at Gunter's Bnrgundian court, and ends with 
the death of Sigurd and the self-immolation of 
Brynhild. Sigurd's earlier career is recounted by 
the hero himself, much as Odysseus tells the story 
of his wanderings at the Court of the Phaeacians. 
But the story is simplified by assuming that when 
Sigurd awakens Brynhild on her rock, acting on 
Gunter's behalf, he has had no previous knowledge 
of her, thus avoiding the necessity for making use 
of the potion of oblivion in working out the tragic 
consummation. Hagen has no evidence beyond his 
own evil suspicions that the King has been betrayed 
by his representative and blood-brother. We notice 
that the scene of Brynhild's fire-encircled sleep is 
given as the island of Halgoland near the mouth of 
the Elbe. Can it be that the author has confused 
this island with the Halogaland of the sagas? Mr. 
Peterson is a believer in the preponderance of the 
Scandinavian element in the population of the Brit- 
ish Isles, and even goes so far as to suggest that the 
Jutes and Angles were kinds of Norsemen, given 
which assumption his demonstration is easy. This 
view is expressed in the Vala's prophecy, made 
when Sigurd questions her concerning his fate. 

" But see ! E 'en now, on Britain's stormy shores, 
Hengist and Horsa, with their sea-tost hosts, 
Land, and great England, Rome's predestined heir, 
Begins her conquering march. As, in a gale, 
A mighty tidal wave, holp by the winds, 
Breaks on some isle, and overwhelms the land, 
All things submerging ; so, on Britain's isle, 
The viking tide, in waves successive, breaks, 
And overflows the land ; o'erflows save where, 
In west and north, the mountain fastnesses 
Of Wales and Caledonia lift their towers. 
Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Norsemen.Swedes, Goths, Danes, 
One people called by many names, one race 
Of ocean-warriors, golden-haired, they come." 

We must make a further quotation from this pro- 
phecy, because in it the author achieves his highest 
flight. 

" Methinks as in a dream I see them now. 
With tossing prows far out at sea beheld, 
With spears and helmets through the ocean mists 
Flashing, they come ; unheralded ; with dread 
Watched by those spirits pusillanimous 
Whose purblind eyes see not in these fierce foes 
Heaven's chosen seed, the saviours of the land, 
Wild giants they, wet with the salt sea-foam, 
But in their lives the primal virtues shine 
Strength, courage, justice, boundless energy, 
Truth-telling, love of home, contempt of death, 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



High wisdom, and all else that makes the man 
And through them is old Europe born again. 
As comes the spring-time back to earth, so comes 
Once more the age heroic back to men. 
The figure of a Norseman, spear in hand, 
Crown'd with his winged helmet, eagle-like 
Koaming, in dragon-ship, the ocean, looms 
Above the world's horizon : I behold 
Comrades in fame, thy vikings range themselves 
Beside the stalwart shapes that founded Rome, 
And hero-hosts Hellenic ; and in thee, 
Sigurd, though briefer was thy life than theirs, 
Ulysses and ^Eneas live again.' 1 

A noteworthy contribution to elegiac verse is 
offered by Dr. Richard Burton, who in "A Mid- 
summer Memory " sings of his lost friend Arthur 
Upson. It will be remembered that Upson was 
drowned a little more than two years ago, in the 
thirty-second year of his age, but not before he had 
won for himself the recognition of them that know. 
His death was a grievous loss to American poetry, 
but we may find some consolation in the fact that 
it has given us this tender and heart-felt threnody. 
We quote the last two of the fifty-four stanzas : 

" Even as Arthur of the Table Round 

Followed the Gleam and fought the good fight through, 
Then floated down the mere unto the sound 
Of flutes that like soft wind forever blew, 
So thou didst straight embark and with a smile 
Float on the bosom of the After-while. 

" The pure of heart are blessed ; they shall be 

God's chosen, he is close to them alone. 
Lover of earth, now heaven hath claim on thee, 
Boldly thine eyes face that refulgency 

Of more than mortal keenness ; for thine own 
Were pure indeed ; forever safe thou art, 
Because thine often-heavy human heart 
Rests, circled by that promise, They shall see .'" 

Wit and wisdom, packed for the most part in 
Hudibrastic measures, are the characteristics of 
Professor Melville B. Anderson's Phi Beta Kappa 
poem, " The Happy Teacher." Mr. Anderson 
has been a teacher for upwards of thirty years, 
and his confession that the word spells happiness 
will be echoed in the heart of every teacher w^ho 
is worthy of that noble profession. He has now 
commenced emeritus, which is a kind of happiness 
also for the veteran with long years of useful work 
behind him, although it must be mingled with 
something of regret. Mr. Anderson's pedagogy is 
of the soundest, as may be instanced by his com- 
ment on the " systems " so dear to the commercial 
type of school administration. 

"Their schools and systems, all and some, 
Seem founded on the axiom 
That gear of clock-work can direct 
The engine of the intellect. 
They dream, like alchemists of old, 
To find in their retorts the gold, 
Blind to the true transmuting stone, 
Only to Nature's bantlings known. 
The spirit bloweth and is still : 
Come, harness it to turn our mill ! 
No teacher, but mechanic tool, 
Who, when the angel moves aright 
On waters of Bethesda's pool, 
Would thermograph them by some rule 
Of I ; <MII mar or Fahrenheit. 



" Our happy guide, of Socrates' 
Athletic school, distrusts degrees. 
Why dub the graduated ass 
Whose ne plus ultra is to pass, 
Honorificabilitudinitas ? 
O runner, fling aside the crutch ! 
Is his monition ; overmuch 
Our Capuan schools abound in aids, 
Diplomas, titles, badges, grades : 
Why titillate with bait so slight 
The hungry edge of appetite ? 
Why tempt the torpid ? Fat of rib 
Is fat of wit : shut up the crib." 

Mr. Anderson's satire is not all aimed at the pur- 
blind pedagogue, but finds many other objects for 
its shafts. Here is one forcible example, which we 
commend to workers in the cause of conservation : 

" Has Earth no vengeance, have the Heavens no curse 
For him who by destruction fills his purse ? 
Let actuaries calculate the worth 
Of him who, dying, poorer leaves the earth : 
Carve the hard face, that coming man may see 
The cruel features of his enemy ! 
Hark ! by the noble soul distinctly heard, 
Out of those marble lips escapes the Word 
That sacrifice of self for those unborn 
Is worship which the gods will never scorn. 
Who makes the world his oyster, leaves it dead 
And done with, soon as ever he has fed, 
Who sucks the juice and chucks away the shell 
Should find no fellowship except in Hell 
Where Dante found the traitors wintering, 
Congenial spirits for the Lumber King." 

The true consecration of the teacher (to return to 
the main theme of the poem) is found in his ac- 
ceptance of the ideal thus nobly stated : 
" No follower and no flatterer of the crowd, 
Not foremost in the synagogue is bow'd 
Our Teacher, giving alms unseen of men, 
Shouts not upon the housetop his Amen ! 
Yet when Hosannah to the Lord on High, 
With voice of many waters people cry, 
Than he, none feels the common impulse more ; 
But, praying, goes within, and shuts the door. 
Deep in the heart he keeps a Holy Shrine ; 
There looks he, not in vain, for the Divine." 

In its guise of a playfulness which does not really 
conceal the serious underlying thought, this poem 
is suggestive of some of Lowell's best things, and 
its didacticism is precisely of the sort which he 
would have applauded. We think that the author 
will not bear us ill-will for pointing out this resem- 
blance, -r, 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 



BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 

The eventful A hearty welcome is assured to 
life of a famous the authorized English version, trom 
peace-promoter. tne p rac ticed pen of Mr. Nathan 
Haskell Dole, of the " Memoirs of Bertha von 
Suttner " (Ginn). These " Records of an Eventful 
Life," as they are called in a sub-title, cover a 
period of about sixty years, from the writer's 
birth at Prague in 1843 to her husband's death in 
December of 1902 ; but a supplementary chapter 
descriptive of her three weeks in America in 1904 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



57 



has been provided for this edition, as also a Preface 
to her English and American readers. Apart from 
the interest attaching to the Barness von Suttner's 
early conversion to the cause of international peace, 
to her subsequent activities in behalf of that cause, 
and especially to the circumstances that impelled 
her to write her world-famous novel, " Lay Down 
Your Arms," there is so much of romance and so 
wide a variety of rich and memorable experience in 
the life of this greatly-gifted woman as to render 
her autobiography irresistibly attractive to a wide 
circle of readers. Indeed, these pages from life, 
especially those describing the writer's early literary 
and artistic enthusiasms, and recounting her passions 
of the heart and her elopement with the man in 
whose company she was to enjoy a "perfect union 
of unclouded happiness," may well prove more fasci- 
nating than any passages from her works of fiction. 
The beginning of her acquaintance with Alfred 
Nobel was curiously brought about, and her inter- 
course with him through the years that followed until 
his untimely death furnishes matter of the most 
readable kind. Other noteworthy friendships and 
other correspondence abound. The Baroness's prom- 
inence in the peace movement naturally made her 
more or less intimately acquainted with nearly all 
the leading advocates of that cause, while her literary 
and musical tastes procured her a host of friends 
among authors and musicians. Mention must be 
made of her outspoken admiration of many Amer- 
ican institutions, including especially the magnifi- 
cent Congressional Library and the hardly less 
admirable Boston Public Library. Through all the 
" Memoirs " there runs a certain German thorough- 
ness, an attention to homely detail, that characterizes 
her famous novel, and that may occasionally weary 
some, but will more often ingratiate and entertain. 
The work is a powerful utterance in behalf of a 
most deserving cause, as well as a charming piece 
of literature. 



Survey* of 
literature, 
old and neiv. 



Mr. Paul Elmer More's " Shelburne 
Essays" (Putnam) have now reached 
a "Seventh Series," and probably 
some readers will by this time have forgotten the 
origin of the title, the rural retreat where the 
first series was conceived and at least partly written. 
The aloofness and dispassionateness of thought and 
style that that retreat seems to have fostered still 
mark the successive additions to the series. To use 
the words applied by him to Edward FitzGerald 
in the present volume, Mr. More impresses one as 
standing calmly " aloof from the currents of the 
hour, judging men and things from the larger circles 
of time," and as at least partly " emancipated from 
the illusions of the present." The essays now col- 
lected have with a single exception already appeared 
in print, although often in an abridged form, and are 
in almost every case prompted by books that have 
presented themselves for review. The chapter now 
for the first time published deals with " Criticism," 
and begins by drawing a parallel, somewhat forced 



perhaps, between Matthew Arnold and the third 
Earl of Shaftesbury. Naturally, Mr. More exalts 
the critic's office, and he even persuades himself, if 
not his reader, that the critical Cicero has been "as 
dynamic an influence in civilization as St. Paul." 
A chapter on "The Pragmatism of William James" 
agreeably disappoints one by proving to be more in 
sympathy with the current revolt against cut-and- 
dried philosophical systems than might have been 
expected from the writer's somewhat conservative 
habit of thought and from a rather unsympathetic 
reference he has elsewhere made to the " prattle of 
pragmatism." Yet while exposing the manifest 
weaknesses of the pragmatic position, he has not 
emphasized so strongly as he might have the service 
rendered to freedom of thought by Messrs. James 
and Dewey and Bergson and their associates. 
The essays not already mentioned have to do with 
Shelley, Wordsworth, Hood, Tennyson, Morris, 
Aldrich, Francis Thompson, Mr. G. Lowes Dick- 
inson, Louisa Shore, and, more briefly, a few other 
authors. Increased ripeness of judgment, widened 
and deepened knowledge, and enlargement of vision 
are to be noted in comparing this latest volume of 
the set with some of its early predecessors. 

A guide to the Those who wish to read wisely and 
appreciation well, and not merely to hasten the 
of literature. flj g jj t o f tj me) c^d not do better 

than take a preliminary course of self-instruction 
in Mr. Edwin L. Shuman's inviting little treatise, 
" How to Judge a Book " (Houghton). Twenty 
years of writing about books, notably as literary 
editor of the Chicago " Record-Herald," have de- 
veloped the author's literary taste, trained his 
judgment, and given him facility in expressing his 
opinions. His book, which is sub-titled " A Handy 
Method of Criticism for the General Reader," and 
which is of similar size and general nature to 
Mr. Larned's " Books, Culture and Character," 
although necessarily more technical, devotes nearly 
three-quarters of its contents to the consideration of 
prose fiction, leaving but forty-seven pages for all 
other literature, and despatching poetry and drama 
in eighteen of these pages. But as the novel is un- 
questionably the most elaborate as well as the most 
popular form of literature, there is some reason in 
this apportionment. Not surprising, either, is the 
democratic test applied by the author to works of 
art. "The greatest art," he holds, "is that which 
gives the most lasting pleasure to the largest num- 
ber of people." But this rule, literally interpreted, 
would lead to some curious conclusions. For ex- 
ample, multiplying the duration of pleasure by the 
number of persons pleased, we should obtain a 
product indicating the art of E. P. Roe's novels to 
be far greater than that of George Meredith's, or, to 
take less recent authors, the art of " The Deerslayer " 
greater than that of "The Scarlet Letter." Mr. 
Shuman's reading, especially in fiction, has evi- 
dently been wide, and he recalls readily and aptly 
such scenes and characters as he needs for illustra- 



58 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 



tion. He seems to assign the right place to morality 
in art, neither exalting it as a leading motive on the 
one hand, nor going so far, on the other, as to preach 
unreservedly the gospel of "art for art's sake." 
Sanity and good taste speak in every page of the 
book, which moreover ingratiates by its amenities 
of style. 

Mr. Charles Oscar Paullin's life of 

An American T i. r> j / A .LU 

commodore of Commodore John Kodgers (Arthur 
the old now. JJ. Clark Co.) is at once a biography 
of an able commander and a history of the old navy 
from 1802 to 1838. Dr. Paullin, by his long studies 
in American naval history, is well qualified to do 
the work; he has also had a wealth of material 
from which to draw out his facts the printed mat- 
ter, both public and private, relating to the subject, 
files of old newspapers, the manuscript records in 
the Navy Department, and family documentary 
collections never before used. Each period of Rod- 
gers's life is exhaustively treated, his family and 
boyhood life ; his experiences as a young officer in 
the Navy ; his career in the Mediterranean and in 
the War of 1812 ; and his constructive work as 
member of the various boards and commissions 
which organized and reorganized naval institutions 
after the War of 1812. The most interesting part 
of the biography is that which deals with the Am- 
erican naval force in the Mediterranean during the 
troubles with the Barbary States. The responsi- 
bilities upon naval commanders were then much 
greater than in the present day of steam vessels 
and cables. In dealing with the North African 
powers Rodgers proved to be a successful diplomat 
as well as a fighting captain, and was most success- 
ful in his difficult task. But his best and most per- 
manent work was as senior member of the boards 
which inaugurated a progressive and constructive 
policy planned a new navy, built navy yards, 
planned the naval academy, the naval observatory, 
and the Hydrographic Bureau. The book is a good 
history of the last generation of the wooden navy 
and of the best representative of the commanders 
of that period one who for twenty years was at 
the head of the navy. The volume is well illus- 
trated with contemporary portraits, facsimiles, and 
copies of old prints. 

An artist's ^* r Hubert von Herkomer has writ- 

memorie* of his ten, not exactly a sequel, but rather 
early training. an antecedent to "My School and 
My Gospel" in his equally entertaining record of 
the rather harsh experiences leading up to the open- 
ing of his school and the firm establishment of his 
fortunes. In "The Herkomers " (Macmillan) he 
traces his family history and his individual biog- 
raphy from the simple Bavarian days through the 
rough American experiment and the up-hill English 
struggle to the serener and more prosperous years 
of later life. The art instinct seems of old to have 
been strong in the Herkomers, in the plasterers and 
cabinet-makers and wood-carvers and other artisans 
of the family, while the love of music and skill in 



making music were prevalent on the mother's side 
of the house. Their art being more to the Herkom- 
ers than wealth or station, poverty and obscurity 
were their cheerfully-accepted portion until the 
present chief representative of the family came into 
full possession of his powers. The story of these 
years of hardship, told by Sir Hubert in the com- 
placency of his own acknowledged success in life, 
has in its way much of the fascination of Cellini's 
glowing and picturesque autobiography. A single 
incident will here indicate the stuff the Herkomers 
were made of. In their English exile the family 
was sorely pressed for the wherewithal to procure 
food and clothing, so that the father sacrified his 
cloak to provide jacket and trousers for his son, 
himself walking a little faster to keep warm, and a 
little later cut out the meat and alcoholic drink 
from his dietary, and also abjured tobacco ; and the 
son insisted on sharing the glory of this renunciation 
by embracing vegetarianism. The book is inviting 
in its literary style, and is attractively illustrated ; 
but the author might well bear in mind Lowell's 
observation on the use of the dash, that it stands as 
a confession of ignorance of the rules of punctuation. 

A remarkable command of oddly 
Essays, satirical c t ureg q ue epithet, surprising dex- 
and otherwise. r , ,. 

terity in the moulding 01 whimsically 

striking phrases, great fertility of invention where 
the available resources of existing speech fall short 
of his needs, such are the salient characteristics 
of Mr. Frank Moore Colby's style in his collection 
of short and crisp essays published under the title, 
"Constrained Attitudes" (Dodd). Merrily sar- 
castic also and good-naturally satirical is he in his 
rapid shots at folly as it flies. The follies of literary 
persons receive some of his shrewdest hits, as when, 
in mild derision of the professional nature-writer, 
he opines that many a non-professional too might 
" know when a thing is bosky and when a thing is 
lush, know the wonderful hour that is neither night 
nor day, and the tang of salt air, and the skirl of 
the haw-bird, and the booming note of the dugong, 
and where the bumbleberries cluster thickest and the 
wild pomatum blooms." Some remarks on Ibsen, 
not heartily eulogistic, are bright and amusing, 
however charged with one-sidedness of view. " He 
writes only for those who go to the theatre to be 
disturbed. Instead of beginning with love in 
difficulties and ending with a happy marriage, he 
begins with happy marriages and ends with the 
very devil." . In ridicule of ostentatious and learned 
quotation the author says, among other good things, 
" It is a humane rule never to jingle your literary 
pockets merely to tantalise the poor." The book 
shows gain in both substance and form as compared 
with its predecessor, "Imaginary Obligations." 
While still a self-constituted critic of everything 
criticizable, the author is a shade less dogmatic 
than he used to be. It may be hoped that in time 
he will acquire a very creditable store of human 
fallibility. 



1911.] 



THE 



59 



That unwearied maker of antholo- 

gi 68 ' Mr> Wallace Rice < has P ut ^ 

wide acquaintance with literature in 
the form of verse to a most effective use in the 
compilation of "The Little Book Series," published 
by the Reilly & Britton Co. Each volume of this 
series offers a selection of poems upon a special 
subject poems from a great variety of authors 
(among them foreign poets in translation) and 
includes many out-of-the-way pieces that only om- 
nivorous readers would be likely to find. Since few 
readers are of this type, the number of those whose 
gratitude Mr. Rice has deserved should be propor- 
tionally large. The twelve volumes thus far pub- 
lished have for their respective subjects Bohemia, 
Cheer, Love, Laughter, Friendship, Out-of-Doors, 
School-Days, Sports, Lullabies, Limericks, Brides, 
and Kisses. Here is surely poetry for all tastes, 
and there is no assignable limit to the further ex- 
pansion of the series. A similar series each volume 
of which shall be devoted to a single poet is also 
planned by the editor. Mr. Rice has a peculiar 
fitness for the task which he has here undertaken, 
and the task itself that of bringing the treasures 
of poetry to the attention of people who balk at 
definitive editions and collected works is one of 
the most praiseworthy imaginable. We should 
think that many thousands of new readers might be 
gained for poetry by thus serving it out in moderate 
and palatable rations. Poetry is, after all, not too 
bright and good for human nature's daily food, if 
only the world knew it, and we extend a grateful 
welcome to an enterprise which, like the present 
one, attempts to give practical effect to that ele- 
mentary proposition. 

Miss Harriet Eliza Paine, who died 
last year at the age of sixty-four, 
left a series of unpublished essays 
on the general subject of the joys and sorrows of 
growing old. These posthumous chapters now 
appear under the collective title, " Old People " 
(Houghton) with a prefatory biographical sketch 
of the author by Miss Alice Brown. Ardent stu- 
dent and inspiring teacher, Miss Paine was com- 
paratively early overtaken by two infirmities that 
sadly interfered with her chosen pursuits and must 
have sorely tried her brave spirit. These ailments 
of the body were deafness and blindness neither 
of them total, but both, especially the former, very 
pronounced. With the voice of authority, therefore, 
she speaks, in her book, on the subjects of "Silence" 
and " Darkness." Other chapters are headed 
"Greeting Old Age," "Change and Breadth," 
" Work," " Earning a Living," " On Keeping 
Young," "The Inner Life of the Old," "The Rela- 
tions of the Old and Young," and " The Renewal 
of Emotion." Miss Brown's sketch and her own 
stimulating pages present her to us as one whom 
we would gladly have known, and known intimately. 
A characteristic passage from her very first para- 
graph gives promise of the strength and cheer of 



The strength 
and cheer 
of old age. 



the succeeding pages. " Some of us have a stout 
conviction," she writes, "which has weathered 
many a gale, that the ideal is the only reality ; but 
veterans understand that to pull a steady oar always, 
whether the tide and wind and current are with us, 
or whether the tide and wind and current are against 
us, is the only way to make the reality ideal." 
Idealist, but not a dreamer, Miss Paine has left a 
book that will speak to older readers in accents at 
once strong and comforting. 



BRIEFER MEXTIOX. 



A volume of " Mohonk Addresses " by Edward 
Everett Hale and David J. Brewer, given from 1895 to 
1907 at the Mohonk Arbitration Conferences, is edited 
by Mr. Edwin D. Mead, and published by Messrs. 
Ginn & Co. for the International School of Peace. The 
addresses are brief and very much to the point. There 
are sixteen of them in all, eleven by Dr. Hale and five 
by Justice Brewer. 

Sociology is working its way down in the schools, and 
is probably headed for the Kindergarten. Meanwhile, 
a stage in its pedagogical progress is marked by the 
publication of Dr. Charles A. Ellwood's " Sociology and 
Modern Social Problems " (American Book Co.), a 
text-book rather more elementary than any we have 
heretofore seen, and in striking contrast to the ponder- 
ous treatises of Spencer, Ward, and Giddings. 

Amateur dramatic societies might do worse than turn 
their attention from the trifling farce-comedies they 
usually select to such sterling material as is offered by 
Mr. Horace B. Browne's volume of " Short Plays from 
Dickens " (Scribner). These " plays," which are 
nothing more than brief dramatic scenes, are very 
entertaining in their dialogue form, and may be easily 
managed also, requiring few characters and even fewer 
accessories. 

"The Poems of Cynewulf," translated into English 
prose by Dr. Charles W. Kennedy, and "The Plays 
and Poems of George Chapman (The Tragedies)," 
edited by Dr. Thomas Marc Parrott, are two welcome 
volumes that emanate from Princeton University, are 
included in a " Library of Scholarship and Letters," 
and are published by Messrs. E. P. Button & Co. 
Both volumes have all the apparatus that a conscien- 
tious student could desire. 

" Forty Songs by Richard Strauss " (for high voice), 
edited by Mr. James Huneker, is a highly acceptable 
addition to the Messrs. Ditson's " Musicians' Library." 
However we may dispute about Strauss as a composer 
for the stage and the orchestra, we generally admit him 
to be a master among song-writers, one who has the 
key to the treasury of pure lyric beauty. This volume 
has the usual accompaniments of portrait and intro- 
ductory essay, and gives the texts in both German and 
English. Other publications of the same house are 
" The Cocoa Palm and Other Songs for Children," by 
Miss Mary Dillingham Frear (a revised edition) ; a 
second volume of " Classics for Violin" (an interesting 
selection of pieces ancient and modern); a set of 
" Octave Studies after J. S. Bach," edited by Mr. Isidor 
Phillipp; a collection of "Choice Part-Songs for Men's 
Voices," edited by Mr. George L. Osgood; and a collec- 
tion of " Twenty Popular Anthems," compiled by Mr. 
Robert E. Austin. 



60 



THE DIAL. 



[Jan. 16, 



NOTES. 

Mr. G. K. Chesterton's study of William Blake is to 
be issued immediately by Messrs. E. P. Button & Co. 
in their " Popular Library of Art." 

Two of the special features of the new edition of 
Wordsworth's complete poetical works, to be issued in 
ten volumes by Houghton Mifflin Co., will be a sketch 
of the poet's life by Mr. Hamilton Wright Mabie and 
a prefatory essay on the Wordsworth country by Mr. 
John Burroughs. 

In " The Purchasing Power of Money," which is to 
be published early this Spring by the Macmillan Co., 
Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University has attacked 
an old problem, but one which is ever timely and which 
is especially so now. The immediate purpose which 
the author has set himself is to determine the causes 
upon which the general level of prices depends. 

Dr. William Edgar Geil, whose study of the Great 
Wall of China was embodied in book form a year ago, 
has extended his research to the " Capitals of China," 
and a descriptive volume bearing this title and fully 
illustrated is to be brought out by the Lippincott Co. 
early in the Spring. The same house has in prepara- 
tion " A Short History of the Navy," by Capt. George 
R. Clarke and others. 

Mr. Herbert W. Paul, the well-known English histori- 
cal student, has brought together in a volume called 
" Famous Speeches " a large number of the most notable 
orations delivered in Parliament or elsewhere from the 
time of Oliver Cromwell to that of Gladstone. Mr. 
Paul will supply a general introduction, biographical 
introductions, notes, etc. Messrs. Little, Brown, & 
Co. are publishing the volume in this country. 

A collection of " Early Plays from the Italian," 
edited, with introductions and notes, by Mr. R. Warwick 
Bond, is announced by the Oxford University Press. 
These plays are " Supposes," " The Buggbears," and 
" Misogonus," and the book as a whole is an attempt to 
illustrate the connection between the Latin, Italian, and 
Early Elizabethan comic stage, whether in subject- 
matter and spirit or in technical forms, Mr. Bond also add- 
ing some brief notice of the allied Educational-Drama. 
The sixteenth annual meeting of the central division 
of the Modern Language Association of America, held 
at Washington University, St. Louis, on December 28, 
29, and 30, was marked by a fair attendance and an 
interesting programme. Chicago was tentatively fixed 
as the place of the next meeting, and Professor Frank 
Hubbard of Wisconsin was chosen to take Professor 
Fossler's place as chairman of the Western Division 
for 1911. 

Several interesting books to be issued during the 
next few weeks by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. are the 
following: ''Turner Essays in American History," by 
former pupils of Dr. Frederick J. Turner of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin; "The Stability of Truth: A 
Discussion of Reality as Related to Thought and 
Action," by Dr. David Starr Jordan ; " Some Fore- 
runners of Italian Opera," by Mr. W. J. Henderson; 
and a volume by Dr. Frederick A. Braun undertaking 
to trace the influence of Goethe upon Margaret Fuller. 
There undoubtedly exists a demand for very ele- 
mentary, popularly written treatises on scientific sub- 
jects, which presuppose no technical knowledge what- 
ever of the field covered on the part of the reader. 
Since the days of Huxley there has been no really great 



master of science, both able and willing to meet this 
demand. Consequently such books are nowadays mainly 
the productions of uninspired, if diligent, compilers. 
In this class belongs Dr. A. S. Herbert's " The First 
Principles of Heredity" (Macmillan). It is the out- 
growth of a series of workingmen's lectures, and covers 
in an orthodox and rather uncritical manner the main 
facts and theories of inheritance. As a general intro- 
duction to the abundant modern literature on the subject 
it may be found useful. While in the main accurate 
it cannot be relied on implicitly in matters of detail. 

It is reported that some time before Count Tolstoy's 
death, he made arrangements by which, after he died, 
none of his books were to be reprinted until his widow 
had sold the new complete edition of his works, in the 
preparation of which she has been engaged during the 
last two years. This edition is now almost finished ; only 
three volumes remain to be printed. The edition will be 
limited to 10,000 copies. Countess Tolstoy is also col- 
lecting for publication her husband's correspondence, 
which will fill several volumes. 

There is peculiar timeliness in the immediate publi- 
cation, by Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co., of a book 
which will in small compass deal with the whole 
question of militarism. " War or Peace : A Present 
Day Duty and a Future Hope," is written by General 
H. M. Chittenden, U. S. A., a graduate of West Point, 
1884, who served as chief engineer of the Fourth Army 
Corps during the Spanish-American War, and who is 
already known to the public for his writings on the 
history of the West. General Chittenden presents the 
somewhat unusual spectacle of a soldier who does not 
let professional bias color his treatment of facts; and 
after carefully marshalling the arguments for and 
against war, and summing up the world situation of 
the present day, he declares in favor of the dis- 
continuance of war as a means of national adjustment. 

Seventy-five of Wordsworth's sonnets are embodied 
in the latest of the series of limited editions produced 
at the Riverside Press. The volume is a square octavo, 
printed on Fabriano hand-made paper from an old- 
style type of exceptional clearness and beauty, each 
sonnet having an entire leaf to itself. Except for a 
graceful woodcut on the title-page, the typographical 
arrangement could scarcely be more severely simple 
as befits the poetry which it enshrines. The contents 
are arranged under three headings, " Nature," 
"Man," and "The Poet"; and while many of the son- 
nets might logically be placed in either group, the 
arrangement is not without interest and value. Every 
Wordsworth lover will rejoice in this dignified setting 
of some of the poet's choicest jewels. 

" The Mastersinger," edited by Dr. Frank R. Rix, 
and " Art Songs for High Schools," edited by Mr. Will 
Earhart, are two new school singing-books published by 
the American Book Co. The selections chosen by Dr. 
Rix are "of large content from the masterworks of 
the great composers " a description in the main true, 
although it hardly justifies the inclusion of " The Lost 
Chord " and a selection from " Erininie." Most of the 
thirty odd numbers are, however, really worth while. 
Mr. Earhart's book does not claim so much, but offers 
what is simply a fair average selection of pieces good 
and indifferent. Since there are about one hundred 
and fifty of them altogether, the teacher has wide room 
for choice. But we have never yet been able to under- 
stand why any music that is not of the very best should 
ever be given to children in their singing-books. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



61 



LIST OF 



BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 36 titles, includes books 
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. 

Annals of a Yorkshire House, from the Papers of a Maca- 
roni and his Kindred. By A. M. W. Stirling. In 2 volumes, 
illustrated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo. John Lane Co. 
$10. net. 

Madame de Pompadour. By Jean Louis Goulavie; trans- 
lated by E. Jules Meras. With portrait, 12mo, 281 pages. 
" Court Series of French Memoirs." Sturgis & Walton Co. 
$1.50. 

Elkanah Settle : His Life and Works. By F. C. Brown. 
Large 8vo, 169 pages. University of Chicago Press. $1.25 net. 

A Little Fif er's War Diary. By C. W. Bardeen ; with intro- 
duction by Nicholas Murray Butler. Illustrated, large 8vo, 
329 pages. Syracuse, N.Y.: C. W. Bardeen. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

Letters of Edward John Trelawny. Edited by H. Buxton 
Forman. Illustrated in photogravure, etc., 8vo, 306 pages. 
Oxford University Press. 

Letters to Sever all Persons of Honour. By John Donne; 
edited, with notes, by Charles Edmund Merrill, Jr. New 
edition ; 8vo, 318 pages. Sturgis & Walton Co. $5. net. 

Books on the Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy. By 
Elizabeth Wells Gallup. Comprising: The Bi-literal Cypher 
of Sir Francis Bacon ; The Tragedy of Anne Boleyn. Each 
illustrated, 8vo. Detroit: Howard Publishing Co. Paper. 

VERSE AND DRAMA. 

The Oxford Book of Ballads. Edited by Arthur Quiller 
Couch. 16mo, 871 pages. Oxford University Press. $2. net; 
also, on Oxford India paper, $2.50 net. 

The Englishman in Greece: A Collection of the Verse of 
Many English Poets. With introduction by Sir Rennell 
Rodd. 16mo, 328 pages. Oxford University Press. $1.75 net. 

A Williams Anthology : A Collection of the Verse and Prose 
of Williams College, 1798-1910. Edited by Edwin Partridge 
Lehman and Julian Park. 12mo, 220 pages. Williamstown, 
Mass. : Privately printed. 

Five Centuries of English Verse. By William Stebbing. 
In two volumes, I2mo. Oxford University Press. 

The Fruits of Enlightenment. By Lyof Tolstoi. I2mo, 
149 pages. John W. Luce & Co. $1. net. 

A Lesson in Marriage: A Play in Two Acts. By Bjornstgerne 
Bjornson ; translated by Grace Isabel Colbron. New edi- 
tion ; 16mo, 66 pages. Brandu's. 

The Unfading Light. By Caroline Davenport Swan. 12mo, 
171 pages. Sherman, French & Co. $1.25 net. 

The Harlot's House. By Oscar Wilde : illustrated in photo- 
gravure by Althea Gyles. New edition ; 8vo. John W. Luce 
& Co. $1. net. 

Fhoclon, and Other Poems. By E. A. Doyle. 12mo, 214 pages. 
Winchester, Ohio : Published by the author. $1. 

FICTION. 

Berenice. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Illustrated in color, 
etc.. I2rao, 264 pages. Little. Brown, & Co. $1.25 net. 

The Pendulum. By Scota Sorin. With frontispiece, I2mo, 
282 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.50. 

The Gift of the Grass. By John Trot wood Moore. Illustrated 
in color, 12mo. 348 pages. Little, Brown, & Co. $1.50. 

Silver-wool. By Emily Jenkinson. I2mo, 314 pages. Baker 
& Taylor Co. fl.50. 

Peter Rngrg, the Missing Man. By William Austin; with 
introduction by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. New edi- 
tion; illustrated and decorated in tint, 16mo, 111 pages. 
John W. Luce & Co. $1. 

What Diantha Did. By Charlotte Perkins Oilman. 12rao, 
250 pages. New York : Charlton Co. 

The End of Dreams. By Wood Levette Wilson. Illustrated, 
12mo, 348 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.50. 

The Heiress of Cranham Hall. By Meredith Junior. With 
frontispiece, 12mo, 285 pages. New York: Broadway Pub- 
lishing Co. 

Love Letters from the Nile. By Mary Randolph. Illus- 
trated in color, I2mo, 205 pages. New York: Knickerbocker 
Press. 

Elisabeth Koett. By Rudolf Hans Bartsch ; translated by 
Ludwig Lewisohn. 12 mo. 265 pages. New York: Desmond 
FitzGerald Co. $1.20 net. 



RELIGION. 
Christianity and the Modern Mind. By Samuel McComb. 

12mo, 243 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. 
The Efficient Layman ; or. The Religious Training of Men. 

By Henry Frederick Cope. 12mo, 244 pages. Griffith & 

Rowland Press. $1. net. 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

Correction and Prevention. By Charles Richmond Hender- 
son. In 4 volumes, illustrated, large 8vo. " Russell Sage 
Foundation Publications." Charities Publication Com- 
mittee. Per volume, $2.50 net. 

Barbarous Mexico. By John Kenneth Turner. 12mo, 340 
pages. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

The Beginnings of the American Revolution. By Ellen 
Chase. In 3 volumes, illustrated, large 8vo. Baker & 
Taylor Co. $7.50 net. 

The Stone Age in North America. By Warren K. Moore- 
head. In 2 volnmes, illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo. 
Hough ton Mifflin Co. $5. net. 

Old English Mezzotints. By Malcolm C. Salaman ; edited 
by Charles Holme. Illustrated, large 8vo. John Lane Co. 
$3. net. 

The Oldest Music Room in Europe : A Record of Eighteenth- 
Century Enterprise at Oxford. By John H. Mee. Illustrated, 
large 8vo, 216 pages. John Lane Co. 

An Illustrated Guide to the Flowering' Plants of the 
Middle Atlantic and New England States. By George T. 
Stevens. Illustrated, 8vo, 749 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. 
$2.50 net. 

The American Shotgun. By Charles Asking. Illustrated. 
8vo, 321 pages. Outing Publishing Co. $2. net. 

The next great issue before the American people. Pretident Taft. 

IMPORT AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM 

By NEWTON MANN 

Author of " The Evolution of a Great Literature," etc. 
'THE doubling of the Socialist vote in the United States 
* at the recent elections, lifting the Party into an actual 
prominence in the country and securing representation in 
Congress, goes far to confirm the declaration of President 
Taft at Jackson, as quoted above. In the present volume 
Mr. Mann with his customary large ability has sketched 
within moderate compass the rise of this movement, dis- 
cusses the means by which, as is believed, the great change 
is to be brought about, and critically examines the grounds 
on which the Socialist hope is built, treating in successive 
chapters the economic and the moral urgencies. (Thirteen 
chapters and index.) 

"An Illuminating and Persuasive Volume" 

From a column editorial in Unity, Chicago 

" Mr. Mann does no careless work, and this book testifies 
to his usual painstaking and fearless labor. ... It is a book 
that will lift the word out of the list of the bugaboo words. 
Socialism is no longer to be disposed of by taboo. One read- 
ing this book no longer dreads it on account of the ' material- 
ism,' the ' infidelity,' or the ' irreligion ' connected therewith. 
It is a book for the thoughtful, and particularly for the per- 
plexed . . . who realize that there is something the matter. 
The book is handsomely printed. We welcome it as one 
more timely volume for the teacher, the parent, the preacher, 
and, above all, the business man who is afraid to think out 
these economic and social problems." 

From an editorial in The Boston Common [public service] 
"Raises Socialism to the power of a religion. If we had 
to learn of historic, contemporary, and prophetic Socialism 
through one book only, we know of none other which so 
clearly or attractively presents it." 

From The Boston Globe 

" The book is not made of doubtful value by containing 
biased views, for the author has been fair in his presentation. 
To know these pages thoroughly is to be in touch with the 
essentials of a great question." 

One volume. Cloth, 5x8 inches. 336 pace*. 
$1.50 net; pottage, 12 cents. 

JAMES H. WEST CO., PUBLISHERS, BOSTON 



62 



THE DIAJL 



[Jan. 16, 



ALL OUT- OP- PRINT BOOKS SUPPLIED, 

n o matter on what subject. Write us. We can get 
you any book ever published. Please state wants. Catalogue free. 
BAKER'S GREAT BOOK SHOP, 14-16 Bright St., BIRMINGHAM, ENO. 



LUZAC & CO. 

: : LONDON, W.C. 



46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET : 

MAKE A SPECIALTY OP 

ORIENTAL LITERATURE, RELIGION, 



ETC. 



Catalogue* issued periodically of new and second-hand books 
which are sent gratis on application! 



New and Second-hand Books 

"" 

Comparative Religion and Mysticism 

Catalogues free on application. 

JOHN M. WATKINS 

21 Cecil Court Charing Cross Rd. LONDON, W. C. 



A Portrait Catalogue 



Containing 23 Portraits 
of Authors will be sent 
FREE ON REQUEST 

This CATALOGUE contains a full list of titles to date. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 East 17th St., NEW YORK 



SPECIALIST IN 
Railroad, Canal, and Financial Literature 

Large stock of books and pamphlets on these subjects. 

DIXIE BOOK SHOP, 41 Liberty St., New York 

Catalogue of Americana 

Sent Free on Application 

I . D 1 CL 120 Ea.t 59th Street 

Lexington Book Shop New York city 

STUDY and PRACTICE of FRENCH in Four Parts 

L. C. BONAMB, Author and Publisher, 1930 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 
Well-graded series for Preparatory Schools and Colleges. No time 
wasted in superficial or mechanical work. French Text: Numerous 
exercises in conversation, translation, composition. Part I. ( GO cts. ) : 
Primary grade; thorough drill in Pronunciation. Part II. (90 cts.): 
Intermediate grade; Essentials of Grammar; 4th edition, revised, with 
Vocabulary; most carefully graded. Part III. ($1.00): Composition, 
Idioms, Syntax; meets requirements for admission to college. Part I V. 
(35c. ) : handbook of Pronunciation for advanced grade; concise and com- 
prehensive. Sent to teachers for examination, with a view to introduction. 

A PRIVATE gentleman forming a Col- 
lection of Autograph Letters of cele- 
brated personages, desires correspondence 
with those who may have such letters and 
will dispose of them . Dealers will not reply. 
Good prices paid for good specimens. 

HENRI BORNOT 

9th FLOOR, 28 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



LIBRARY ORDERS 

/^\UR facilities for promptly and completely filling 
^-^ orders from public libraries are unexcelled. Our 
location in the publishing center of the country en- 
ables us to secure immediately any book not in our 
very large stock. Our prices will be found to be the 
lowest for all parts of the United States. 

Requests for Quotations Receive Prompt A ttention. 



WHOLESALE DEALERS IN THE 
BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 

33-37 EAST 17th STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



Etched Portraits of 
Famous Americans 

By JACQUES REICH 

17 subjects from authentic sources. 
$20.00 to $50.00. 

Etched Portraits of 
Famous Authors 

10 subjects. $6.00 to $25.00 each. 

Ideal for the Home or School Library 

Arrangements for private plates may be made by mail. 
Send for descriptive Price List. 

JACQUES REICH JSw J?RK 

lhMi^ 



OF 



HOWARD SUTHERLAND 
$1.00. By Mail $1.09 

Second Series AN EXQUISITE GIFT BOOK 

DESMOND FITZGERALD, 156 5th Ave., New York 



THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION 

Established in 1880. LETTERS OF CRITICISM. EXPERT 
REVISION OF MSS. Advice as to publication. AddreM 
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 70 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY 







SEND YOUR "WANTS" TO 

WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 

Publishers, Booksellers, Stationers, Printers 
851-853 SIXTH AVE. (Cor. 48th St.), NEW YORK 


ALL BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 


Including 

FRENCH 

SPANISH. ITALIAN. 
GERMAN AND OTHER 
FOREIGN 

BOOKS 


Including 

MEDICAL 

books and works concerning 
HORSES, CATTLE, DOGS 

and other Domestic 
Animals 


Special facilities for supplying Schools, Colleges and 
Libraries. Catalogues on Application. 



1911.] 



THE DIAJL 



63 



Sales of Important Literary and Art Collections 
The Library and Autographs 






Of 

Edmund Clarence Stedman 

First Editions. Presentation Copies, Letters and Manuscripts (some unpublished). 

E. C. Stedman Eugene Field E. A. Poe A. C. Swinburne 

Mark Twain Austin Dobson John Hay Geo. Meredith 

The Brownings W. S. Landor J. W. Riley William Winter 

P. B. Shelley Walt Whitman W. D. Howells Edmund Gosse 

Sixty Association items of Aldrich, Unpublished Letters of the Brownings. Unpublished Letters and an Unpublished 
MS. of Eugene Fie Id among nearly fifty lots of Field items of extraordinary interest; John Hay's privately issued "Poems" 
and " Pike County Ballads." each with letter relating to it : an Autograph copy of " Old Ironsides " ; Lander's own copy of 
"Idyllica Heroica"; Meredith's " Modern Love"; Keats' " Endymion "; MANUSCRIPTS AND LETTERS OF E. A. POE. 
Walt Whitman & Bayard Taylor; Shelley's "Posthumous Poems" and "We Pity the Plumage." an important AUTO- 
BIOGRAPHIC LETTER OF A. C. SWINBURNE of ten folio pages. Swinburne's own copy of " Theophile Gantier " and 
other books and letters. Every book has Mr. Stedman 's autograph or bookplate; nearly all are of association interest, 
including privately printed items very difficult to procure. 

Fart I. (A to E Afternoons and Evening's of January 12 and 18, 1911 
Part II. F to O) Afternoons and 19 and 20, 1911 

Part III. (P to Z Afternoons and 24 and 25. 1911 

Part IV., Paintings, Prints and Signed Photographs, January 26, 1911 



The Anderson Auction Company 

12 East 46th Street, New York 

Catalogues and full information to intending buyers furnished on request. Sales in preparation include Robert 
Hoe, Mark Twain, Judge Jacob Klein of St. Louis, and the Judson S. Dntcher Whistler Etchings. 



F. M. HOLLY 

Authors' and Publishers' Representative 
Circulars sent upon request. 156 Fifth Avenue. NEW YORK. 



WRITERS ARTISTS. 



We sell Stories. Jokes. 
Poems, Illustrations, 



Designs, and all other Publishable Material on Commission. 
We know who pays best prices, and can save yon tune and money 
in the disposal of your productions. 

CASH RETURN'S, explaining our , 
system, sent on request. Mention your 
line when writing. 

THE BURELL SYNDICATE. 
R. 795, No. 118 E. 28th Street, New York 





AUTHORS 

wishing manuscripts placed without reading fee, address 

La TO UGH E HANCOCK, 134 W, 37th St., New York City 



Authors' MSS. Revised and Sold 

Under the direct supervision of one of America's successful 
authors. Operating under the written endorsement of leading 
publishers. Private editions published. Charges moderate. No 
advance fee. Mail your MSS. to-day. 

LITERARY BUREAU 

810 Stephen Girard Building PHILADELPHIA 



The only biography of the founder of modern Socialism 

KARL MARX: His Life and Work 

By JOHN SPARGO 

$2.50 net ; $2.70 carriage paid. 
B. W. HUEBSCH, 225 Fifth avenue, New York City 



Our Bargain Catalogs 

ARE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION 



A cuttomer ivritei : " Please quote me prices ; I find it 
0tly not to have communicated with you before 
purchasing." 

"A Catalog of Reference Booh* offered from 25 to 6O 
per cent. Discount. " 

A Catalog of Book* Relating to American History. 

A Catalog of Art Booh*. 

A Catalog of Standard Set*. 

OXE OB ALL MATT.KT> ON REQUEST 
Quotations Made on Special Itemt on Request 



The H. R. Huntting Co. 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



64 



THE DIAL 



[Jan. 16, 1911. 



THE LIFE OF 

CHARLES SUMNER 

By Walter G. Shotwell 

"is certainly the most exhaustive 
and perhaps the most painstaking 
biography of Sumner that has yet 
appeared," says the Outlook. " In 
this volume of more than 750 
closely printed pages, every phase 
of the great Senator's career is 
studied in detail, and . . . with a 
narrative skill that seldom allows 
the interest to flag." 

8vo, cloth. Two portraits. 
By mail, $1.65. 



T. Y. CROWELL & Co., NEW YORK 



>f Interest to lUbrarians 

The books advertised and reviewed in this 
magazine can be purchased from us at 
advantageous prices by 

public 3Ufcrarfe0, >ci)ool, 
Colleges, and Slniiiersfties 

In addition to these books we have an excep- 
tionally large stock of the books of all pub- 
lishers a more complete assortment than 
can be found on the shelves of any other 
bookstore in the United States. We solicit 
orders and correspondence from libraries. 

LIBRARY DEPARTMENT 

A. C. McCLURG & GO. 

CHICAGO 



New Titles Now Ready 



SPAIN FROM WITHIN 



By Rafael Shaw 



Treats of religious, educational, political, and economic 
I conditions in a way interesting to the general reader. 
It makes startling disclosures. 

Cloth, 8vo, 16 illustrations, $2.50 net. 



THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 

By A. Stuart Pennington 

A full description of many features of this great republic 
of South America, especially interesting to the business 
man. Cloth, 8vo. 8 illustrations, $3.00 net. 

BRITISH COSTUME During xix Centuries 

By Mr,. C. H. ASHDOWN 

From the time of the druids through the reign of George 
III., specifying the beginnings and endings of periods 
for each style. A monumental work, of interest to illus- 
trators, artists, costume-designers, historians, stage 
managers, pageant committees, etc. 

Cloth, 8vo, profusely illustrated in 
color and black and white, $4.50 net. 

OLD KENSINGTON PALACE and Other Papers 

By A ast in Dobson 

Short studies, all written within the past two years, of 
French and English figures of the XVIII. Century, lean- 
ing to the social and anecdotal, with an admixture of 
I literary criticism. Cloth, 8vo, gilt top, $1.50 net. 

HISTORICAL VIGNETTES By Bernard Cape, 

Each pictures a dramatic moment in the life of a person- 
age of historical importance, treated fancifully, but in 
the majority of cases having a legendary basis. 

Cloth, Svo, $2.50 net. 

COUNTY COAST SERIES 

THE NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK COAST 

By W. A. Dutt 

THE SOUTH DEVON AND DORSET COAST 

By Sidney Heath 
THE CORNWALL COAST By Arthur E. Salmon 

Each describing delightful English country and towns, 
touching on the rich historical and literary associations, 
j Cloth, 8vo, fully illustrated, each, $2.25 net. 

SPRINGS, STREAMS, AND SPAS OF LONDON 

By Arthur Stanley Foord 

Describes the streams which, though no longer above 
ground, have given their names to London Streets, 
traces the gradual growth of the water supply, and gives 
accounts of "Spas" or wells of historical associations. 
Cloth, 8vo, illustrated, $3.50 net. 

HIGHWAYS AND HOMES OF JAPAN 

By Lady Lawson 

The home life of the Japanese. Photographs of excep- 
tional interest have been chosen for illustrations. 

Cloth, 8vo, illustrated, $3.75 net. 

WOMAN AND MARRIAGE By Margaret Stephen, 

To give women (and men incidentally) that under- 
standing of themselves which leads to healthy parent- 
hood and the bearing of strong, healthy children. 

Cloth, I2mo, $1.00 net. 



FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 



PUBLISHERS 



NEW YORK 



THE DIAL PRESS, FINE AJITS BUILDING, CHICAGO 




THE DIAI 



^ SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

Criimsm, gisntssi0n,.anir <|nformati0n 



EDITED BY \ Volume L. 

FRANCIS F. BROWNE / iVo. 591. 



1 1 Q1 1 10 ctt. a copy, / FINE ABTS BUILDING 

. 1, 1V1X. #. a year. \203MichiganBlvd. 




Recent Important Books 




Japanese Letters of Hearn 

Edited by ELIZABETH BISLAND 

" This must take its place as one of the few lasting, noteworthy books of the year ... a 
revelation, showing Hearn to have been a larger and finer character than even his admirers 
have quite realized . . . the best of all his books because it contains most of his rare, exotic 
personality."- - Chicago Record-Herald. 

" No man ever so completely revealed himself 

in a correspondence as did Lafcadio Hearn." 

New York Herald. 



" The charm of these letters is manifold. 



"There is a decided charm about all these 
letters." 

Boston Transcript. 

With delightful absence of self -consciousness 
the writer tells of the happenings about him, comments upon the curious lore he has picked 
up, and describes lovely scenes he has chanced upon in his wanderings." The Dial. 

Illustrated. $3. 00 net. Postage 21 cents. 

The Corsican NAPOLEON'S DIARY 

" It's an intensely interesting book, and has us see Napoleon clearly, has us understand him better than we could by 
all the screeds of history." Chicago Inter Ocean. Four printings. $1.75 net. Postage 15 cents. 

Digressions of V By ELIHU VEDDER 

" A fluent and complete disclosure of personality, a disclosure nearly as complete in its way and quite as interesting 
as that of any classic diarist. . . . Whoever reads it will know a singularly versatile and attractive personality in all 
its moods, merry and sad." The Outlook. With hundreds of illustrations by the author. $6.00 net. Postage 30 cents. 

The Old Testament Narrative Arranged and Edited by ALFRED D. SHEFFIELD 

"A compact and clearly arranged volume. . . . The value of such a re-arrangement of the narratives to a clearer 
understanding of Hebrew history can hardly be over-estimated. . . . Altogether the book is well adapted to the use 
of the general reader and of the student." Living Age. Illustrated. $1.50 net. Postage 13 cents. 

READY FEBR UARY 18 

The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists Edited by w. A. NEILSON 

This volume presents typical specimens of the work of the most important of Shakespeare's contemporaries and thus 
affords a view of the English drama through its most brilliant period. $2.75 net. Postpaid. 

A Beginner's History of Philosophy Vol. 2 Modern Philosophy By H. E. CUSHMAN 

Vol. I., "Ancient and Mediaeval Philosophy" (published last Fall) is already being used in Harvard University, 
Radcliffe College, Dartmouth College, Amherst College, Tufts College, Ohio State University, Kenyon College, 
Washington and Lee University, and the State University of Iowa. $1.60 net. Postpaid. 

Ready February 25 : ROBINETTA By the authors of " The Affair at the Inn." 

By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN, MARY and JANE FINDLATER, and ALLAN McAULAY 



BOSTON 



HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



NEW YORK 



66 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



SOME IMPORTANT 1910 BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES 

Published by LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Boston 



Eiteratut* 

ANGELL, EMMETT DUNN. PLAY: Games for the 
Kindergarten, Playground, School Room and Col- 
lege. 190pp. Illus. $1.50 net. 

Games simply described and in many cases illustrated. The 
introductory chapters contain practical suggestions for the 
equipment of public playgrounds. A. L. A. Booklist, Sept. '10. 

CRAWFORD, MARY CAROLINE. ROMANTIC 

DAYS IN OLD BOSTON. 411 pp. Illus. $2.50 net. 

Nineteenth Century Boston, its preachers, social leaders, 

artists, writers, actors, orators, the Boston abolitionists, the 

Brook Farm group, and the growth of the city after 1821, are 

described with skill, imagination, discrimination, and charm. 

A. L. A. Booklist, Dec. '10. 

HOMER, ILIAD OF. Translated into hexameter verse 
by Prentiss Cummings. 2 vols. 528 pp. $3.00 net. 
This translation has been well C9nsidered and carefully 

executed, being faithful without slavishness, and simple yet 

poetic. Boston Transcript. 

HOWE. MAUD. SICILY IN SHADOW AND IN 

SUN. The Earthquake and the American Belief Work. 
490 pp. Illus. $3.00 net. 

Hardly another American is so capable of interpreting 
Italian life and character. Chicago Tribune. 

JAMES, GEORGE WHARTON. THE GRAND CAN- 
YON OF ARIZONA: HOW TO SEE IT. 265 pp. 

Illus., map. $1.50 net. 

A visitor's guide to the Canyon, incorporating in revised 
form all that is now pertinent of the author's " In and Around 
the Grand Canyon" and including later material. ^. L. A. 
Booklist, Nov. '10. 

HEROES OF CALIFORNIA. 502pp. Portraits, etc. 

$2.00 net. 

It tells of the lives and deeds of the men who made Cali- 
fornia a reality. Springfield Republican. 

MAHAN, A. T. THE INTEREST OF AMERICA IN 
INTERNATIONAL CONDITIONS. 212 pp. $1.50 net. 
The volume is written in a scientific and realistic spirit, 

facing facts and conditions. Chicago Record-Herald. 

ST. AUGUSTINE. THE SOLILOQUIES OF. Trans- 
lated by Rose Elizabeth Cleveland. 180 pp. $1.50 net. 
A timely volume which should be among the treasures of all 

who love life, literature, and the things of the spirit. Chicago 

Record-Herald. 

WALKER, EMMA E. THE PRETTY GIRL PAPERS. 

306 pp. $1.25 net. 

Invaluable information in matters of hygiene and care of 
the body by a New York physician. Gives a great deal of 
very sensible advice. New York Times. 

WHITING. LILIAN. LOUISE CHANDLER MOUL- 
TON: POET AND FRIEND. 294pp. Illus. $1.50 net. 
A biography that presents to us the poet and friend just as 

she lived. Boston Transcript. 



jFiction 



LAGERLOF, SELMA. THE GIRL FROM THE 
MARSH CROFT. Translated by Velma S. Howard. 
277pp. $1.50. 
Nine short stories of Swedish peasant life. The first and 

longest is in a new vein a realistic sketch showing few of the 

romantic and mystic tendencies which mark the author's earlier 

work. A. L. A. Booklist, June '10. 

OTIS, ALEXANDER. THE MAN AND THE 

DRAGON. 323pp. Illus. $1.50. 

It is a clean, vigorous account of a young man's struggle to 
do right and his success. Book Review Digest. 

SIENKIEWICZ. HENRYK. WHIRLPOOLS. Trans- 
lated by Max A. Drezmal. 390pp. $1.60. 
The heroine, Marynia, is one of this author's finest female 

creatioBs. Mr. Sienkiewicz has here given his admirers a new 

kind of love story. N. Y. Times. 

WALLER, MARY E. FLAMSTED QUARRIES. 

493 pp. Illus. $1.50. 

A story that will find favor with Catholic readers for its 
delineation of the life and good services of a devoted priest. 
A. L. A. Booklist, October '10. 



C&ildmt'0 Books 



BAKER, ETTA ANTHONY. FROLICS AT FAIR- 
MOUNT. 295pp. Illus. $1.50. 
A sequel to " The Girls of Fairmount," and picturing life at 

a girls' finishing school. A. L. A. Booklist, Feb. '10. 

BURGESS, THORNTON W. OLD MOTHER WEST 

WIND. 169pp. Illus. $1.00. 

A collection of extremely pleasing stories for very little 
children, of a quality to be recommended for bed-time reading. 
A. L. A. Booklist, Dec. '10. 

BUSH, BERTHA E. A PRAIRIE ROSE. 305 pp. Illus. 

$1.50. 

A wholesome, charming, realistic story of pioneer days in 
Iowa. 

CHANNON, FRANK E. AN AMERICAN BOY AT 
HENLEY. (Henley Schoolboy Series.) 296 pp. Illus. 
$1.50. 
Gives a good idea of an English schoolboy's life. Boston 

Transcript. 

COX, JOHN H. KNIGHTHOOD IN GERM AND 

FLOWER. 187 pp. Illus. $1.25. 

Tells in an exceedingly attractive form the old stories of 
Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight of the Arthurian 
romance. San Francisco Argonaut. 

ELLIS, KATHARINE RUTH. THE WIDE AWAKE 
GIRLS AT COLLEGE. (Wide Awake Girls Series.) 
294pp. Illus. $1.50. 
Wholesome, and touched with genuine humor. A.L. A. 

Booklist, Dec. '10. 

GODFREY, HOLLIS. JACK COLLERTON'S EN- 
GINE. (Young Captains of Industry Series J 285pp. 
Illus. $1.25. 
It is among the first juveniles to tell interestingly about the 

present state of aviation. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 

MCDONALD, ETTA AUSTIN AND DALRYMPLE, 

JULIA. BETTY IN CANADA. {Little People Every- 
where Series.} Ill pp. Illus. 60 cents. 

BORIS IN RUSSIA. 120pp. Illus. 60 cents. 

FRITZ IN GERMANY. 120 pp. Illus. 60 cents. 

GERDA IN SWEDEN. 120pp. Illus. 60 cents. 

No series has approached this in combination of delightful 
story, reliable and varied information, beautiful illustrations, 
attractive bindings, and low price. Journal of Education. 

MASEFIELD, JOHN. MARTIN HYDE, THE DUKE'S 

MESSENGER. 303pp. Illus. $1.50. 

A story of Monmouth's Eebellion pronounced " the best 
historical romance for boys published in several years." 

RAY, ANNA CHAPIN. SIDNEY: HER SENIOR 
YEAR. ( Sidney Series.) 320pp. Illus. $1.50. 
A wholesome, genuine, and not too sentimental story of the 

doings of a set of girls at Smith College. New York Times. 

TILESTON, MARY WILDER. THE CHILD'S HAR- 
VEST OF VERSE. 322pp. Illus. $1.50. 
Contains 200 selections of verse for children 6 to 13, all 

appropriate and many of rare merit. 



(Edition 



DICKENS, CHARLES. THE LIBRARY DICKENS. 

Complete in 30 vols. 12mo. Illus. Cloth with reinforced 
library binding. $30.00 net; any story sold separately. 
$1.00 net per volume. Entire set now ready. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



67 



THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.'S NEW AND RECENT BOOKS 



A Guide to English History 



By HENRY W. ELSON 

12mo, S50 pages. 16 illustrations. $135 net; postage 12 cents. 

A narrative and anecdotal version of England's story by the author of the justly popular " History 
of the United States " and " Guide to United States History." 

This is the latest addition to the Guide Series, which includes 

Guide to Pictures By Charles H. Caffin Guide to Music 

Biography, 2 vols. By Burton . Stevenson 

American Men of Action 

American Men of Mind 
United States History By Henry W. Elson 



Reading 
Mythology 
Great Cities 



By Daniel Gregory Mason 

By John Macy 

By Helen A. Clarke 

By Esther Singleton 



The books form an excellent library for young readers and others. 



Malory's King Arthur and His Knights 

By HENRY B. LATHROP, Professor of English in the 
University of Wisconsin. 12mo, 4%1 pages, illustrated 
by REGINALD BIBCH. $1.50 net ; postage 14 cents. 
Presents the splendid old story in Malory's own 
words, with certain omissions. An excellent li- 
brary edition. 



Kindergarten at Home 

By V. M. HILLYER. Svo, 200 pages illustrated with 
drawings and diagrams. $1.25 net ; postage 14 cents. 

Play lessons arranged by programme. First 
aid to mothers and kindergartners. 



Owen Johnson's 

Lawrenceville Stories 

Have no rival in our literature. The 
" Tom Brown's School Days " of America. 




The Varmint 

12mo, 373 pages, illustrated. $1.50. 

The Prodigious Hickey 

12mo, 234 pages, illustrated. $1.50. 
( First published as The Eternal Boy.) 
The Humming Bird 

12mo, illustrated. 50 cents. 



THIRD EDITION 



The Golden Age of Engraving 



THIRD EDITION 



A Specialist's Story About Fine Prints 

Svo, 550 paget, 263 illustrations, cloth. tS-50 net; pottage 16 cents. 

paper label. $7.00 net. 



By FREDERICK KEPPEL 

Limited Autograph Edition, full boards. 



It ranges over the whole field from Diirer's work to Pennell's and offers a wealth of comment, counsel, 
and suggestion. The illustration is rich and varied, consisting of examples of the work of nearly every 
great engraver and etcher from Diirer down. 



The Narrative Bible 

Edited by CLIFTON JOHNSON, author of " The Country 
School," " Highways and Byways, 1 ' "Golden Books 
for Children." 12mo, SOO pages, illustrated. $1.50 net; 
postage 15 cents. 
The Bible narrative told in Bible language, condensed 

by omissions. 



Tales Come True and Tales Made New 

By MARGARET COULSON WALKER, Square Svo, t50 
pages, illustrated with many picture* in color and 
half-tone. tlJSSnet. 

A companion book to " Lady Hollyhock," being a book 
of nature dolls designed as an aid to mothers and kinder- 
partners in entertaining and occupying children, Full 
of practical suggestions. 



Is Mankind Advancing ? 

By MBS. JOHN MARTIN. Svo, 550 pages. $3.00 net. 

A bold and open-minded discussion of this inexhaustible 
question. 



The Growth of the Gospels 

By W. FLINDERS PETRIE. llmo. about 100 pages. 

90 cents net; postage 8 cents. 

The latest word of science on the text of the New 
Testament. 



Retrospections of an Active Life 

By JOHN BIQELOW. Three volumes. Svo, 4S illustra- 
tions. Cloth; boxed, per set, $11.00 net. 
A memoir of the classic type, rich in state and personal 

correspondence, and intimate reminiscences of men and 

events. 



Ways and Days out of London 

By AIDA RODMAN DE MILT, Svo, S20 pages, frontis- 
piece in color, 65 illustrations. $230 net; postage, 17 
cents. 
Lavishly illustrated and delightfully written, this book 

should be a valued companion both to travellers and 

stay-at-homes. 



THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 EAST 17th STREET, NEW YORK 



68 THE DIAL [Feb. 1, 



Important Issues for Every Library 

THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 

By WILLIAM MILLIQAN SLOANE, Ph.D., L.H.D., LL.D., Professor of History in Columbia University. 
" The greatest history of the greatest man of modern times," the one complete and final summary of the world's infinite 
mass of Napoleonic literature, with all the excitement and charm of romance. A new library edition with over 10 per cent 
entirely new matter. 32 illustrations from rare prints and photographs. 17 maps. 

Four octavo volumes of over 500 pages each. Price $10.00 net; carriage extra. 

GROVER CLEVELAND: A Record of Friendship 

By RICHARD WATSON GILDER. 

A revealing and sympathetic portrayal of Cleveland the husband, father, lover of children, loyal comrade, and courageous 
citizen; a record indispensable to a right understanding of the real Grover Cleveland. 

Illustrated. Tall 12mo, 270 pages. Price $1.80 net, postage 12 cents. 

SEVEN GREAT STATESMEN : In the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason 

By ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, lately President and Professor of History at Cornell University. 

Essays of unusual vitality and interest historical, biographical, critical, constructive written out of the richness of 
knowledge and with the illuminating touch of one who is himself a maker of history, a scholar, and a statesman. 
Royal octavo, 552 pages. Price $2.50 net, postage 22 cents. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN And Other Addresses in England 

By JOSEPH H. CHOATE, LL.D., D.C.L. 

Eleven scholarly essays by one of America's most noted diplomatists and orators essays of wide range and appeal, of 
sound and inspiring appreciation, of intense interest, and enduring value. 

Octavo, 30O pages. Price $2. OO net, postage 14 cents. 

THE LURE OF THE ANTIQUE 

By WALTER A. DYER. 

An ideal guide-book for all who would enjoy to the full, or know how to buy wisely, representative examples of antique 
furnishings. The illustrations have unusual interest and value. 

Octavo, 488 pages. Price $2. 40 net, postage 18 cents. 

THE STORY OF SPANISH PAINTING 

By CHARLES H. CAPFIN, author of " How to Study Pictures," " The Story of Dutch Painting," etc. 

At once a history, a biography, and an interpretative and critical work. It is an admirable volume both for student and 
layman. Thirty-two half-tone reproductions of notable Spanish canvases. 

Square 8vo, 193 pages. Price $1.20 net, postage 12 cents. 

THE WORKER AND THE STATE 

By ARTHUR D. DEAN, Chief, Division of Trade-Schools, New York, State Education Department. 

A Study of Education for Industrial workers; and the most rational, philosophical, practical, and far-reaching treatment 
of this vital subject yet presented. 

12mo, 350 pages. Price $1.20 net, postage 11 cents. 

HUNTING WITH THE ESKIMOS 

By HARRY WHITNEY. 

The Unique Record of a Sportsman's Year Among the Northernmost Tribe the Big Game Hunting, the Native Life, and the 
Battle for Existence Through the Long Arctic Night. Sixty-four full-page illustrations from Mr. Whitney's photographs 
and from reproductions of interesting Eskimo sketches. 

Octavo, 483 pages. Price $3. SO net, carriage 23 cents, 

A VAGABOND JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

By HARRY A. FRANCK. 

Another Fascinating and Unusual Book of Adventure. " One of the most intensely interesting books of travel that has 
ever been written." Over 100 snapshots made by the author in his wanderings. 

Royal 8vo, 502 pages. Price $3.50 net, carriage 23 cents. 

WALTER CAMP'S BOOK OF FOOT-BALL 

The first of a series of books on American sports to be edited by " the Father of American Foot-Ball." The best book on 
foot-ball ever written. Lavishly illustrated. 

Octavo, 363 pages. Price $2. 00 net, postage 15 cents. 

THE BOYS' BOOK OF MODEL AEROPLANES 

By FRANCIS ARNOLD COLLINS. 

Full instructions how to build a model aeroplane which will really fly and from materials costing but a few cents with 
the story of the history and evolution of the flying-machine interestingly told. Over fifty illustrations from plates and 
working diagrams furnished by the author. 

12 mo, 308 pages. Price $1.20 net, postage 14 cents. 

THE CENTURY CO. UNION SQUARE NEW YORK 



1911.] THE DIAL, 69 



NOW READY _ t NOW READY 

rl 111 

AMERICAN YEAR BOOK 

FOR 1910 

Prepared under the care of a Supervisory Board consisting of accredited representatives 
or members of THIRTY-FIVE GREAT NATIONAL LEARNED SOCIETIES 

Dr. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Harvard University, Chairman. 
Dr. S. N. D. NORTH, Managing Editor. 

The American Year Book records the events and progress Its 882 closely printed pages provide exact information on 

during the year in every department of human activity, scientific, historical, literary, sociological, economic, and 

with especial stress on American affairs. It has been the kindred subjects ; concise, national and international 

aim of the editors to reach the highest point of authority statistics ; a chronology of notable events, a select bibliog- 

and accuracy. All the departments have been handled raphy ; and a variety of tabular matter. A full subject 

by experts. The work is arranged with the idea of index thoroughly analyzes the contents. The volume is 

serving the busy man who wishes his information to be easy to handle only five by eight inches, and about two 

compact and absolutely reliable. inches thick. The price is $3.50 net. 

OTHER APPLETON BOOKS RECOMMENDED TO LIBRARIES 
The American Public Library 

By ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, PhJD., Librarian St. Louis Public Library. Late Librarian Ne-w York Fret Circulating Library 

and Brooklyn Public Library, etc.; Pretident American Library Association, IQOJ-oS. 

For the general reader, for the librarian, who will find in it a grouping of facts and a mode of treatment that may be suggestive and 
interesting ; for the young library assistant, and for the student in library school or training class, who will find in it. not an exhaus- 
tive treatise on library economy, but rather a bird's-eye view of the subject. Illustrated. I2mo, cloth. $1.50 net. 

Egypt: Ancient Sites and Modern Scenes 

By G. MASPERO. Profusely illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top. $4.00 special net. 

In this volume Professor Maspero gives us a collection of charming word pictures of Egypt, in which history and archaeology are 
made to blend with scenes of to-day, and the past is linked to the present. No living Egyptologist has such a command of facts as 
Professor Maspero, and no other writer on the land of the Pharaohs has such brilliant literary gifts and so picturesque a style. 

The Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur 

Edited by THEODORE ST ANTON. Illustrated -with reproductions of paintings and many sketches. 

Cloth, gilt top, rough cut edges. $300 net. 

" There is so much in this book that even in a column I cannot begin to touch upon all its good things. The letters of Rosa Bonheur 
in themselves would make a most entertaining book. Mr. Stanton's translations are so well done that they do not read like transla- 
tions. The volume is illustrated with twenty-four full-page pictures and fifteen line drawings. It is one of the most meaty and 
readable biographical works of the year a fascinating personality presented by a competent and conscientious hand." EDWIN L. 
SHDMAN. in The Chicago Record-Herald. 

Railroad Traffic and Rates 

By EMORY R. JOHNSON, Professor of Transportation ana Commerce, Author of " American Rail-way Transportation," etc., and 
GROVER G. HUEBNER, Instructor in Transportation and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania. 8vo, cloth,2 volumes. $j.OO net. 
These volumes are written primarily to meet the demand of railway officials for authentic information regarding traffic services and 
rate systems. It is the result of years of study. It is written in a concise and clear style, and is a manual that will be of daily assist. 
ance to railway officials, and will be useful to government officers, university students, and all writers upon transportation questions 

Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena 

By H. J. MOZANS. iS illustrations. 8vo, Blue cloth, gilt top, rough cut edges. $3.00 net. 

The record of an experienced traveller in the little frequented parts of Colombia and Venezuela. The author, for the most part alone, 
followed the unbeaten paths, took a long time for his journey, and had ample opportunity to study the people, the country, the birds 
and animals and flowers in an intimate way. He had many hazardous experiences. 

D. APPLETON & COMPANY : 35 WEST 32d STREET : NEW YORK 



70 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



T. Y. Crowell & Company's 1910 Books 



FICTION 

DEEP IN PINEY WOODS. By J. W. Church. Illustrated 

in color. 12mo net $1.20 

THE WHEELS OF TIME. By Florence L. Barclay. Illus- 
trated in color. 12mo net .50 

TRAVEL 

RAMBLES IN SPAIN. By John D. Fitz Gerald. Illus- 
trated. 8vo net 3.00 

SWITZERLAND. By Oscar Kuhns. Illustrated. 8vo.net 2.00 
OBERAMMERGAU. By Josephine H. Short. Illustrated. 

12mo net 2.00 

HOLIDAY EDITIONS 

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER. By S. T. 

Coleridge. Illustrated in color by Pogany. 4to. . .net 5.00 
WALDEN. By Henry D. Thoreau. Illustrations by Clifton 

Johnson. 8vo net 2.00 

HEREWARD, LAST OF THE ENGLISH. By Kingsley. 

Illustrated. 8vo, postpaid 1.60 

THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS. By Eugene Sue. Illus- 
trated. In two volumes. 12mo, postpaid 2.50 

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

RANGE AND TRAIL. By Edwin L. Sabin. Illustrated 

by Rowe. 8vo, postpaid 1.50 

THE WIRELESS STATION AT SILVER FOX FARM. 

By James Otis. Illus. by Copeland. 8 vo, postpaid. .. 1.50 

DOROTHY BROOKE'S VACATION. By F. C. Spar- 

hawk. Illustrated. 8vo, postpaid 1.50 

CHINESE FAIRY STORIES. By Norman H. Pitman. 

Illustrated in color. 8vo, postpaid 1.00 

GOD'S TROUBADOUR. The Story of St. Francis of 

Assisi. By Sophie Jewett. Illustrated. 8vo net 1.25 

THE STORY OF JESUS TOLD FOR CHILDREN. By 

E. F. Jones. Illustrated in color. 8vo, postpaid 1.00 

STORIES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Thomas Carter. 

Illustrated in color. 8vo net 1.50 

STORIES FROM DANTE. By Susan Cunnington. Illus- 
trated in color. 8vO net 1 .50 

OLD GREEK NATURE STORIES. By F. A. Farrar. 

Illustrated. 8vo net 1.60 

DAYS BEFORE HISTORY. By H. R. Hall. Illustrated. 

8vo, postpaid 1.50 

THE BOYS' CUCHULAIN. By Eleanor Hull. Illustrated 

in color. 8vo net 1.50 

THE BOYS' NAPOLEON. By Harold F. B. Wheeler. 

Illustrated. 8 vo, postpaid 1.50 

FAMOUS VOYAGES OF GREAT DISCOVERERS. By 

E. Wood. Illustrated 1.50 

FOLK TALES FROM MANY LANDS. By Lilian Cask. 

Illustrated in color. 8vo net 1.60 

HEROIC ADVENTURES OF SIEGFRIED. By D. F. 

Madeley. Illustrated in color. 8vo, postpaid 1.50 

THE WHITE MERLE. By Lilian Cask. Illustrated. 

8vo, postpaid : 1.50 

TRUE STORIES ABOUT DOGS. By Lilian Cask. Illus- 
trated. 8vo, postpaid 1 .50 

POETRY 

SIEGFRIED. By Richard Wagner. English verse by 

Oliver Huckel. 12mo net .75 

UPS OF MUSIC. By Charlotte Porter. Illus. 12mo. .net 1.25 

RHYMES OF HOME. By Burges Johnson. 12mo net 1.00 

POEMS OF SOPHIE JEWETT. I2mo... ...net 1.25 



ESSAYS AND LITERATURE 

GEORGE ELIOT. By Charles S. Olcott. Map and illus- 
trations. 8vo net $2.00 

BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS. Edited by J. R. Howard. 

18mo, postpaid 35 

BEST AMERICAN ORATIONS. Edited by J. R. Howard. 

18mo. postpaid 35 

BEST ENGLISH PROSE. Edited by A. L. Gowans. 

18mo, postpaid 35 

LONGFELLOW AND OTHER ESSAYS. By William P. 

Trent. 12mo net 1.50 

THE LITERATURE OF THE SOUTH. By M. J. Moses. 

Illustrated. 8vo net 2.50 

HERO MYTHS AND LEGENDS. By M. I. Ebbutt. Illus- 
trated. 8vo net 2.00 

BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY, ETC. 

LIFE OF CHARLES SUMNER. By Walter G. Shotwell. 

8vo net 1.60 

WHEN AMERICA BECAME A NATION. By Tudor 

Jenks. Illustrated. 12mo, postpaid 1 .25 

STATE SOCIALISM IN NEW ZEALAND. By J. E. 

LeRossignol. 12mo net 1.50 

CHINA AND THE FAR EAST. Edited by George H. 

Blakeslee. 8vo net 2.00 

ETHICS AND RELIGION 

SEEKING AFTER GOD. By Lyman Abbott. 12mo, net 1.00 
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL? By G. A. Andrews, 12mo.net 1.00 

DURABLE SATISFACTIONS OF LIFE. By Charles W. 

Eliot. 12mo net 1.00 

THE CHRISTIAN PASTOR IN THE NEW AGE. By 

A. J. Lyman. 12mo net 1.00 

GETTING ON. By Orison Swett Marden. 12mo net 1.00 

BE GOOD TO YOURSELF. By Orison Swett Marden. 

12mo net 1.00 

THE BEAUTY OF EVERY DAY. By J. R. Miller. 

16mo net .65 

THE MASTER'S FRIENDSHIPS. By J. R. Miller. 

Illustrated in color. 12mo net .50 

THE WINNING OF IMMORTALITY. By Frederic Pal- 
mer. 12mo net 1.00 

THE UNITY OF RELIGIONS. Edited by J. H. Randall 

and J. G. Smith. 8vo net 2.00 

NEW THOUGHT BOOKS 

FROM PASSION TO PEACE. By James Allen. 12mo, net .50 

THE MIRACLE OF RIGHT THOUGHT. By Orison 

Swett Marden. 12mo net 1.00 

FAITH AND HEALTH. By Charles R. Brown. 12mo.net 1.00 

A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH. By C. B. 

Patterson. 12mo net 1.25 

THE LAND OF LIVING MEN. By Ralph Waldo Trine. 

12mo, postpaid 1.25 

"FIRST FOLIO" SHAKESPEARE 

New Volumes 

PERICLES RICHARD II. 

CYMBELJNE RICHARD III. 

TROYLUS KING JOHN 

Edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke. 

Photogravure frontispieces. Each, postpaid 75 



1911.] THE DIAL 



THE OUTLOOK 



writes 



that so few books have been published concerning Norway. As a matter 
of fact, whether judged by its charm and impressiveness of mountain and 
fjord or by its attractiveness of folk, Norway is a country which emphat- 
ically deserves the traveller's visit. In her volume ' A TKIP TO THE 
LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN' Martha Buckingham Wood 
tells us many interesting things about both land and people. Indeed, her 
book has surprises in store for some of us." The verdict of this favored 
book is, that there is not one private or public library that is too small 
or too poor to carry a copy of this entertaining and instructive book. 

308 pages, profusely illustrated from unusual photographs and 
bound in cloth with original design in gold. $2.00 net. 

f) T/\T> "TVrCH"V\r'd remarkable book on Psychic Research 
IjJ VJxtl.1 k5Ul> k5 Wise-Knut" to be had in Bernard 
StahFs authorized translation only. Not in a long time has a book 
succeeded so well in winning the admiration of the American Press. 

Cloth, with portraits. $1.00 net. 



T) T/\T> 'VTCl f^lVPQ world-wide success, "A Lesson in Mar- 
Jjd V7ti> OVJll O " translated by GRACE ISABEL 



COLBRON is now ready. This is the first English version of the famous 
P* av - Price 50 cents net, bound. 

THE DOMINANT SEX, a play in three acts by ANNIE NATHAX 
MEYER, is an intense and fearless presentation of vital sex questions. 

Cloth, $1.00 net. Ready March 1st. 
BRANDU'S 767-769 LEXINGTON AVENUE NEW YORK 



72 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



FOR THE LIBRARY 

G. F. ABBOTT (Editor) 

Greece in Evolution 

Studies prepared under the auspices of the French 
League for the Defence of the Bights of Hellenism. 

An impression of modern Greece in her evolution dur- 
ing recent years by a number of distinguished Frenchmen. 
12mo, cloth, net $1.50 

ROSSITER JOHNSON 
The Story of the Constitution of the United States 

12mo, cloth, net $1.00 

A History of the War of Secession, 1861-1865 

(New and revised edition.) 
8vo, cloth, 552 pages, maps, index, net $2.00 

FREDERICK LAWTON, M.A. 
Balzac A Biography 

An exceedingly sane and accomplished piece of work ; 
a biography in the best sense of the term. 
8vo, cloth, 32 full-page illustrations, 388 pages, net $4.00 

REDFERN MASON 
The Song Lore of Ireland 

Erin's Story in Music and Verse 

" Of high merit and of interest to the average reader be- 
cause of its lucid and direct style. A .L. A. Booklist (Dec.) 
8vo. cloth, net $2.00 

WESSELS & BISSELL CO. 

Agents for the Publications of Harvard University 
PUBLISHERS 225 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 



JUST PUBLISHED 




By CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY 

Professor of English Language and Literature in the 
University of California 



New Edition, Revised and Enlarged 
Price, $1.60 



T 



HE purpose of this work is to familiarize students 
and general readers with the Greek, Roman, Norse, 
and German myths which have acclimated themselves 
in English-speaking lands; with the uses of these myths 
in English and American poetry; with the principal 
masterpieces of ancient and modern sculpture and 
painting, illustrating mythological subjects; and with 
the history and interpretation of myths. 

This new edition of a work which has become a 
classic as a textbook and as a work of reference embod- 
ies many changes in arrangement and scope of material 
which make the book even more valuable than before. 
Some of the myths have been restated and certain ones, 
before omitted, have been included. The illustrations 
are entirely new and are from the finest set of line draw- 
ings ever prepared for an American textbook. 



GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 



Boston 
Atlanta 



New York 

Dalla. 



Chicago 
Columbus 



London 

San Francisco 



New Books of Timely Interest 
THE TASK WORTH WHILE 

By HENRY S. MABIE, D.D. 

' This masterpiece on Missions embodies the lectures 
delivered in 1909-10 by special invitation of the Theological 
Faculty's Union. Dr. Mabie has put the full force of his 
great mind and heart into these lectures. It is really 
stimulating, edifying." Word and Way. Price $1.25 net. 

THE EFFICIENT LAYMAN 

By HENRY F. COPE 

This book is a thorough study of the whole subject, and 
is a positive contribution to the Laymen's Movement in 
our churches, and toward the utilization of all forces in 
our church life. It should be in the hands of every intelli- 
gent layman in our churches. Price $1.00 net. 

THE LIVING ATONEMENT 

By J. B. CHAMPION, D.D. 

The work will impress anyone as that of a scholarly 
man; earnest in search of the absolute truth. It is a work 
that no student can afford to ignore, and one that the 
more it is studied will prove itself to be an important con- 
tribution to the discussion of a vital theme, Price $1.25. 

FOR BOYS 
THE YOUNG MINERALOGIST SERIES 

By EDWIN J. HOUSTON Fully illustrated. 

In this Series stories are told of the life and adventures 
of a lad who has inherited, both from father and grand- 
father, a fondness for mineralogy as well as that wider 
subject, physical geography. 

Now A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK Price per 
Issued THE LAND OF DROUGHT copy, $1,26. 



THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS 

168-170 WABASH AVENUE CHICAGO 



NEW BOOKS AT 
CLEARANCE PRICES 

HEWLETT'S Earthwork Out of Tuscany. 2vols. 

Pub. $6.00 net $3.00 

HODQETT'S Russian Court in 19th Century. 

2vols. Pub. $6.00 net $2.50 

LAINDOR'S Across Coveted Lands. 

Pub. $7.50 net , . . $2.50 

MELVILLE'S George I. and His Times. 2 vols. 

Pub. $6.00 net $2.50 

ROSSETTI (Christina). Family Letters. 

Pub. $3.50 net $1.50 

SHELLEY'S Gilbert White, and Selborne. 

Pub. $1.50 net 75 cts. 

LANG'S Prince Charles Edward. 

Pub. $20.00 $7.50 

ENGLISH BIBLE Tudor Translation. 6 vols. 

Pub. $45.00 net $10.50 

FITZGERALD'S The Highest Andes. 

Pub. $6.00 net $2.00 

ROUSSEAU and the Women He Loved. 

Pub. $3.75 net $1.75 

SHERMAN (General) Home Letters of 

Pub. $2.00 net $1.00 

FROUDE (James Anthony) The Life of. By 

Paul. 2 vols. Pub. $4.00 net $1.25 

83?" Price* do not include Postage or Express Charges. 
FOR SALE AT 

GREGORY'S BOOKSTORE 



116 UNION STREET 



PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



73 



RECENT BOOKS 

The Higher Education as a Training for Business 

By HARRY PRATT JUDSON 

A careful discussion of a vital educational problem. Sober, sensible, and practical, it is as 
far as possible from the one-sided treatment which the question commonly receives. 
56 pages, I2mo, cloth ; net 50 cents, postpaid 55 cents. 

Elkanah Settle: His Life and Works By FRANK c. BROWN 

Includes a painstaking biography, a list of the writings known to be his, and a valuable 
bibliography. Half-tones from old prints, title-pages, etc., add to the attractiveness of the 
volume. 190 pages, 8vo, cloth ; net $1.25, postpaid $1.39. 

An Introduction to Protestant Dogmatics 

By Dr. P. LOBSTEIN. Translated by ARTHUR M. SMITH 

Dr. Lobstein's book stands quite alone in its orderly, scientific presentation of theological 
material, while it combines, in a unique manner, the evangelical interests and the scientific 
effort of the new theology. 298 pages, I2mo, cloth ; net $1.50, postpaid $1.62. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

CHICAGO, ILL. 



PRESS 



The Baker & Taylor Company, New York City 
AGENTS : Cambridge University Press, London and Edinburgh 
Th. Stauffer, Leipzig 



"THIS BOOK READS LIKE A ROMANCE" 

The Story of the American Board 

By WILLIAM E. STRONG 

Profusely illustrated with photographs and maps. Bound 
in red cloth with back and side stamps in gold. 

523 pages. 8 1 x 5%. $1.75 net. 

LJ ERE "$ a book that deserves attention. Every friend and 
** supporter of Christian missions needs not only to read it 
for the exhilaration of the story, but to keep it at hand for 
reference. It has been a revelation to many to find that the 
account of a missionary societv's first century has the charm 
of an interesting biography. The salient points in the prog- 
ress of the hundred years are seized upon with unerring judg- 
ment and recorded with unfailing vigor, telling phrase and 
apt anecdote. Before the volume is finished any reader will 
be interested in missions. 

WHAT PEOPLE ABE SAYING ABOUT IT 

A well- wrought Festschrift a worthy memorial of the striking 
events and strong personalities of a heroic and slowly victorious strag- 
gle of light with darkness. Full of dramatic interest. The Outlook. 

Condensed as the narrative is, it cannot fail to im press the reader with 
the scope and greatness of the work and of the wide influence of foreign 
missions in the making of the history of the world. The World To-day. 

A stirring tale, and its stories of adventure, of bravery, of de- 
votion, are full of fine incident. The Bottom Globe. 

In this volume the Editorial Secretary of the Board describes briefly 
the story of its beginnings, purposes, and accomplishments. Despite 
the necessary brevity and meagreness of the story, he succeeds in sug- 
gesting something of the scope and movement, the character and power 
of a truly heroic enterprise to which for a hundred years some of the 
best and bravest men and women of America have given their lives. 
Literary Digest. 

An interesting account and an excellent survey which in its sum- 
ming up of results makes an impressive showing. .Veir York Times. 

The book serves the double purpose of timeliness and a fine incentive 
to missionary study. The story is charmingly told. Boston Herald. 

The volume reads in some parts like a thrilling romance, in others 
it is a dignified but vivid historical recital. Sometimes the author is 
explanatory or argumentative, but always succinct and forceful Dr. 
CHARLES AUGUSTUS STODDARD, in the New York Observer. 

175Wabash Ave. TUC Dll RDIU DQEQQ 14 Beacon St 

CHICAGO I fit rlLunlm rntoo BOSTON 



BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 1910 BY 

B. W. HUEBSCH 



ANDERSON, MELVILLE B. The Happy Teacher, net 
BIGELOW, JOHN. The Folly of Building Temples of 

Peace with Untempered Mortar net 

BISHOP, EMILY M. Daily Ways to Health . . net 
FEUCHTERSLEBEN, ERNST VON. Health and 

Suggestion net 

GILLMORE, INEZ HAYNES. Maida's Little Shop . 
GRIGGS, EDWARD HOWARD. The Philosophy of 
Plato and Its Relation to Modern Life. 

Paper, net, 25 cts.; Cloth, net 

IRWIN, WALLACE. The Teddysee net 

IE WIN, WILL. The Readjustment ... .net 
LUBY, JAMES. The Black Cross Clove ... net 

OPPEXHEIM, JAMBS. Wild Oats net 

OPPEXHEIM, JAMES. The Pioneers .... net 
PFLEIDERER, OTTO. The Development of Chris- 
tianity .net 

ROSS, EDWARD ALSWORTH. Latter Day Sinners 

and Saints net 

SPARGO.JOHX. Karl Marx: His Life and Work net 

TRAUBEL, HORACE. Optimos net 

ZUEBLLN. CHARLES. Democracy and the Overman, 

net 



$0.60 

1.00 
1.50 

1.00 
1.25 



0.50 
0.75 
1.20 
1.20 
1.20 
0.50 

1.50 

0.50 
2.50 
1.50 

1.00 



NEW YORK: 225 FIFTH AVENUE 



74 THE DIAL [Feb. 1,1911. 



THE NEW MACMILLAN BOOKS 



READY THIS WEEK 

A Cyclopedia of Education Volume I. now ready 

By PAUL MONROE, Ph.D., Professor of the History of Education, Teachers' College, Columbia 

University, author of "A Textbook in the History of Education," " A Brief Course in the History of 

Education," etc. 

An exceptionally important work since there has been until now no work of reference from which 

teachers, school superintendents and principals, editors, ministers, public officials, or others who have to 

deal with matters touching education, could secure accurate, up-to-date statements of fact, outlines of 

problems, and the accumulated experience of hundreds of special students. The contributors, chiefly 

American, are chosen from among the soundest, sanest specialists in educational practice and theory. 

To be complete in five volumes. Each, $5,00. Vol. I. now ready. 

SECOND EDITION NOW READY OF THE NEW REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED 

Mr. James Bryce's The American Commonwealth 

This thoroughly revised new edition, with new chapters, of the standard classic on American government 
is amply maintaining the preeminence of the well-known work. The New York Evening Post, after 
commenting on the added material and almost innumerable minor alterations which bring the book 
abreast of the latest practice, adds : "Its consummate union of philosophical insight and comprehensive 
observation leaves it still a political and social survey of incomparable excellence." 

In two octavo volumes, gilt top. $4-00 net. 
AN IMPORTANT AND FASCINATING NEW WORK 

Dr. Henry Fairf ield Osborn's The- Age of Mammals 

The author is Vertebrate Paleontologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, Curator of the Department of 
Vertebrate Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History (also President) and Professor 
of Zoology in Columbia University. 

A most successful attempt to share with the general reader the results of the absorbing and rewarding 
research work of the specialist. Dr. Osborn has refused to sacrifice accuracy or fulness of treatment to 
ease of reading, but on the other hand has deftly arranged his text so that the merely popular reader of 
scientific tastes, fascinated by the panorama of developing life, may pass over entirely the documentary 
part of the work or return to it in the second reading which the book is certain to receive. 

Illlustrated with exceptionally interesting photographs, maps, etc. Cloth. 8vo. $4-50 net. 

MISCELLANEOUS NEW BOOKS JUST READY 

Unitarian Thought By Ephraim Emerton 

Professor of Church History in Harvard University. 

A clear state of the Unitarian position in relation to the more important topics of modern Christian 

speculation. Just ready. Cloth. 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The Basal Beliefs of Christianity By James H. Snowden, D.D. 

Author of " The World a Spiritual System." Cloth. $1.50 net. 

New Testament Theology By Henry C. Sheldon 

Professor in Boston University. 

A vital analysis exceptionally clear and thoroughly tested. Cloth. $1.50 net. 

Social Adjustment By Scott Nearing 

The author is known as one of the most suggestive, thought-stimulating, and clarifying writers on 
present-day economic questions. Just ready. Cloth. 8vo. $1.50 net. 

Rural Hygiene By Henry N. Ogden 

Professor of Sanitary Engineering, Cornell University. 

A new volume in the Rural Science Series. Just ready. Cloth. Svo. $1.50 net. 

Mr. Jack London's striking stories When God Laughs 

By the author of " The Call of the Wild," " Burning Daylight," etc. Cloth. $1.50. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



THE DIAL 

Sctm'-fHonttlg Journal of Ettcrarg Criticism, Discussion, anti Information. 



THE DIAL {founded in 1880J is published on the 1ft and 16th oj 
each month. TERMS or SUBSCRIPTION, S2. a year in advance, postage 
prepaid in the United States, and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian 
pottage 50 cent* per year extra. REMTTAXCBS should be by check, or 
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY. 
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions trill begin vith the current 
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub- 
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription 
is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on appl ication. All com- 
munications should be addressed to 

THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. 

Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 591. 



FEBRUARY 1, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



CONTENTS. 



LIBRARY MACHINERY VS. HUMAN NATURE 75 

ECHOES FROM THE LIBRARY PRESS OF 1910. 

Aksel G. S. Josephson 77 

CASUAL COMMENT 7! 

Tolstoy's desire of seclusion. Amateur censorship 
of current literature. Recent library legislation in 
Maryland. Literary and other dual personalities. 
The criminal's taste in literature. Education and 
efficiency. The growth of the Library of Congress. 
The story of a Byron manuscript. The effect of 
book exhibitions at county fairs. The proper in- 
gredients of a travelling library. The organization 
of Harvard libraries. Yasnaya Polyana as an inter- 
national peace memorial. The tardy acceptance of 
a Carnegie library. 

COMMUNICATIONS 82 

The Question of Library Renewals. Samuel H. 

Eanck. 
History and Macaulay. Charles Woodward Hutson. 

TOLSTOY, ROMANCER AND REFORMER. Percy 

F. Bicknell 83 

PENNSYLVANIA IN HISTORY. Charles Leonard 

Moore . . 85 



THE HERO OF QUEBEC. Lawrence J. Burpee 



87 



A HISTORY OF SIX MILLION YEARS. T. D. A. 

Cockerell 88 

THE GENIUS OF BALZAC. Lewis Piaget Shanks 90 
RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne ... 91 
Rolland's Jean-Christophe. Snaith's Mrs. Fitz. 
Quiller-Couch's Lady Good-for-Nothing. Hyatt's 
People of Position. Mrs. Thurston's Max. Miss 
Willcocks's The Way Up. Nicholson's The Siege of 
the Seven Suitors. Scott's The Impostor. Jones's 
Out of Drowning Valley. Harben's Dixie Hart. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 95 

Library history in a nutshell. Some memories of a 
popular story-writer. Tramps in Mongolia. Ad- 
dresses of a social reformer. Relics of a mighty 
people. An outline of Japanese history. Biog- 
raphical studies in imposture. The builders of early 
Babylonia. Impressions of American travel by a 
Briton. A naval officer of the olden time. 

BRIEFER MENTION 98 

NOTES 99 

TOPICS LN FEBRUARY PERIODICALS .... 99 
LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 100 



LIBRARY MACHINERY VS. 
HUMAN NATURE. 



There was once an old-fashioned librarian at 
the head of a modern library (this was not long 
ago, and there may be others like him even 
now) whose conception of a head librarian's 
functions was beautiful in its simplicity and 
admirable in its theoretical provision for every 
foreseen or unforeseen contingency. He sat in 
his snug little book-lined office, read the liter- 
ary reviews and marked certain books for pur- 
chase, and formulated rules for the administra- 
tion of the great library whose destinies he con- 
trolled. These rules were handed to a sub- 
ordinate and duly published as the law of the 
institution until such time as they should be 
repealed or revised. Reports from depart- 
mental heads concerning the practical effect or 
non-effect of these rules were from time to time 
graciously received, as were also the properly 
registered complaints and suggestions of the 
visiting public; and after these reports, com- 
plaints, and suggestions, which often revealed 
an amazing discrepancy between the theoretical 
perfection of the rules and their practical de- 
fects, had been read and pondered by the lib- 
rarian, there was a fresh formulation of rules, 
or of amendments to rules, and the new code 
went into effect. 

If a public library were nothing but a ma- 
chine, however big and complex, and if human 
beings were walking mechanisms, all built on 
the same model, the old-fashioned librarian's 
method of administration would have worked to 
a charm. But they reckon ill who leave out 
human nature in their schemes for running the 
universe or any minutest part of it. Our learned 
bibliothecary above-mentioned never came in 
touch with his public, and hardly with his offi- 
cial staff. His surviving friends still smile at 
the remembrance of the almost panic-stricken 
haste with which he was wont to beat a retreat 
to his sanctum when waylaid by a reader or 
other person in quest of such assistance as, by 
the rules of the library, was to be rendered by 
a certain specified departmental superintendent 
or by some minor official. 

Between the mechanically perfect-running 
but otherwise worthless system by which a 
nickel-in-the-slot apparatus would furnish any 



76 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



desired book, pamphlet, periodical, or piece of 
information, automatically registering the loan 
and return of books, and the unorganized, 
chaotic, hap-hazard way of conducting a library, 
there is surely a happy medium ; and this happy 
medium, with its maximum of quiet orderliness 
and frictionless efficiency, and its minimum of 
red tape and vexatious restrictions, every ear- 
nest library worker is more or less consciously 
striving to attain. Just now the pendulum has 
been set in full swing toward an unbureaucratic 
management of " the people's university," and 
this is well. What unnumbered disgusts and 
" disgruntlements " have been excited by the un- 
wise or untactful enforcement of rules not dic- 
tated by the ripest judgment ! The weaknesses 
and prejudices of human nature insistently de- 
mand recognition in the formulation of library 
rules, so far as such rules must be formulated. 
What library worker cannot recall instances of 
astonishing and often amusing sensitiveness or 
resentfulness in book-borrowers and readers? 
There comes to mind a certain middle-aged man 
who had in an advanced stage of development 
what we call " the library habit." That is, he 
was a frequent and long-staying visitor at the 
public library, without any manifest consistency 
or earnestness of purpose in his visits. But by 
some chance he had applied several times for a 
particular book that happened on each occasion 
to be out or misplaced, and the perhaps un- 
necessarily curt announcement of the book's 
unprocurability, two or three times repeated in 
response to rapidly successive requests, begot 
in his mind a suspicion that it was being pur- 
posely and even malevolently withheld from 
him. As soon as the existence of this unjust 
suspicion was discovered, the man was reasoned 
with and the most convincing arguments were 
brought to bear upon his understanding, if he 
had any, to bring him to a saner frame of mind ; 
but all to no purpose, and he summarily with- 
drew his patronage from that library. Another 
instance of whimsical resentfulness recurs to 
memory. At a certain library where, as is 
universally the case, the demand for recent 
popular books is far in excess of the supply, 
applicants are notified by mail, upon request, 
when any desired work may be had. Moreover, 
in its praiseworthy attempt to do the greatest 
good to the greatest number, the library some- 
times sends these notices to those who have not 
asked for them, but who are known to have 
applied unsuccessfully for certain books. It 
was one such gratuitously-notified card-holder 
who one morning came snorting into the library 



and up to the delivery desk with a vigorous 
complaint against the authorities for bothering 
him with postal cards whenever he happened to 
ask for a book that was out. 

The tactful librarian is he who knows by 
something like intuition how to avoid all such 
ruffling episodes as the foregoing. Nothing 
mars the pleasure and impairs the usefulness of 
library work like these petty discords between 
the serving and the served. The importance of 
an ingratiating manner and an unfailing ability 
to avoid giving offense was felt by that public 
speaker who, in addressing a certain recent con- 
vention of librarians, began with the assertion 
that no one could hope to succeed in the profes- 
sion if he ate onions. The increasing attention 
now given to the " human appeal " side of 
library work is evidenced by the various affili- 
ated activities that are carried on under the 
modern library's roof. It is rightly held that 
to make a good library-user of a person, he 
must be caught young. Hence the picture- 
exhibitions and the story-hours and, of late, the 
indoor games that serve as beneficent lures to 
turn many juvenile footsteps library- ward. Not 
only educative games, like Authors and Logo- 
machy, but even jackstraws and tiddledewinks 
receive the sanction of children's librarians. 
From Madison, Wisconsin, there comes word 
that the moving-picture apparatus has now been 
pressed into the service of the juvenile depart- 
ment at the public library, " as an aid in making 
the library more fully an educational institu- 
tion." The story of Sir Galahad, of Oliver 
Twist, of King Lear, or perhaps of Robinson 
Crusoe, is first told in a brief and simple manner 
by the children's librarian, and then the moving 
pictures present the same series of events to the 
eye, " the scenery and costuming of the char- 
acters being in perfect accord with the theme." 
One can easily imagine the breathless interest 
with which the assembled little ones watch 
Oliver as he extends his bowl for more gruel 
and encounters the scandalized astonishment of 
the poor-house officials. How many a Dickens- 
lover, or potential Dickens-lover, must be then 
and there called into being ! The question how 
far it is wise or indeed legitimate for the public 
library, established in accordance with certain 
State laws, to go into the business of furnishing 
mere amusement, however harmless and health- 
ful, to the children of its community, will never 
be settled by any hard and fast rule ; and it is 
undoubtedly well that the error, if any, should 
be on the side of indulgence and a large-minded 
and large-hearted interpretation of library law 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



77 



rather than on that of bureaucratic stiffness 
and over- cautious conservatism. Something at 
any rate may be learned from errors of com- 
mission ; little or nothing by refusing to make 
experiments and strike out new paths. 

Our above-mentioned old-fashioned librarian 
chose to play toward his library somewhat the 
part of an absentee deity who winds up his 
universe and leaves it to run until it runs down. 
The modern librarian, on the other hand, feels 
himself to be something like an immanent pres- 
ence in his little world, and if he absents him- 
self even for a day the system tends to languish 
and suffer torpor. He resists the temptation, 
so natural to one having to do constantly with 
rules of classification, systems of labelling, and 
methods of shelving, to classify and label and 
shelve his helpers and his visitors and thereafter 
wash his hands of them. Ever on the alert for 
new and unexpected developments in human 
nature around him, and for fresh and unforeseen 
demands on his tact and resourcefulness, as 
well as on his stores of technical and general 
knowledge, he recognizes that there is no such 
thing as finality or completeness in library 
economy, and that the library with a flawless 
set of rules flawlessly enforced would be a 
hopelessly dead library. 



ECHOES FROM THE LIBRARY PRESS 
OF 1910. 

" The library world is still seeking an equilibrium 
between things essential and things non-essential," 
says Mr. Charles E. Rush in the January number 
of the " Library Journal," in an article called 
t; Practical Problems in Reorganization Work." 
Among the non-essentials he classifies the greater 
part of library statistics, " page after page of bare 
figures." " Who cares for them and reads them " ? 
he asks. The accession book is another fossil which 
he would like to see removed ; and he is not alone 
in his objections to it. Mr. Rush refers to " the per- 
sistent and increasing demands that are daily made 
by library patrons (and we know not by how many 
hundreds more of would-be patrons) to leave out the 
red tape in our rules, open the shelves, liberalize the 
allowance of books and the time limits, simplify our 
catalogues, show more books and less library ma- 
chinery." The library should carefully consider the 
needs of its constituency, the attitude of its patrons 
toward it, and not hesitate to reorganize if that 
seems to be the best way to meet the demands of 
the public. After all, the library exists to serve 
the public. The necessity of occasional reorganiza- 
tion is also pointed out by Mr. W. Dawson Johnston, 
in his paper on " The Librarian as an Educator," 
printed in the October number of the same periodi- 



cal. " The work of organization," he says, " is con- 
ceived to end with the establishment of the library. 
Now, from any point of view but a personal one, 
the establishment of a library is only the first step 
in its organization. Even a machine requires re- 
modelling ; much more an institution. The changes 
in the community, the changes in other institutions, 
and the changes in the institution itself make 
reorganization necessary." Mr. Johnston's paper 
discusses the position of the library towards the 
educational revolution of our day, and he urges that 
the services of the school to the library be con- 
sidered, it has in the past been neglected even by 
librarians for the discussion of how the library 
could serve the school. There are, he thinks, some 
things that the school does now that the library could 
do better, and he thinks that such topics in the 
curriculum as the reading of literature might well 
be taken from the school and turned over to the 
library. To quote from another part of the same 
paper : ' The demand for school extension has 
resulted in the establishment of evening schools, 
summer schools, continuation schools, and other in- 
stitutions for adult education. In many cases, per- 
haps in most cases, these institutions have justified 
their establishment, but many times and in many 
places it would have been more economical and 
sometimes better to have provided added library 
facilities instead of added school facilities, or, per- 
haps, gardens and playgrounds." But would it ? 
That would depend on the personality, the interests, 
the sympathies of the librarians in charge. In the 
last part of the paper, Mr. Johnston speaks of 
" Research and Libraries," and here points out par- 
ticularly two defects of the present organization of 
libraries : that special collections coming to libraries 
either by bequest or by purchase are not kept up 
and added to through new purchases, and the lack 
of specialization in the reading-room service. 

The latter question was also taken up by Mr. 
Frank P. Hill in his contribution to the symposium 
of " Retrospect and Forecast " which was presented 
at the annual meeting of the New York Library 
Club in May, when the club celebrated its first 
quarter century, and printed in the June " Library 
Journal." The retrospects were concerned with the 
changes that have taken place during the last 
twenty-five years, in statistics, methods, scope, and 
ideals. Mr. Hill speaks of the possibilities of special- 
ization, pointing at a movement which became crys- 
tallized at the A. L. A. conference of 1909 when 
the Special Libraries Association was organized. 
" The work thus initiated," he says, " and for which 
there is a legitimate and, heretofore, practically 
unexplored field will no doubt go forward, though 
perhaps not through the medium of a separate organi- 
zation. More and more the need of specialization 
in libraries presents itself, and as resources become 
known students will turn from the free and reference 
libraries to special libraries, where they will find all 
material connected with their own line of work." 
And further : " In order to ensure the efficient 



78 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



handling of the many and varied collections result- 
ing from increased specialization, a staff of consult- 
ing librarians will probably be necessary to render 
the collections available, and it will only be in the 
spirit of cooperation that the best results will 
follow." 

Miss Mary W. Plummer, in her contribution to 
the Forecast, dealing with the future of the library 
schools, urges what it may be permitted to say that 
the present writer has advocated for years, and which 
it is pleasant to see that a director of a library school 
has at last taken up, namely, the establishment of 
graduate schools of library administration and bibli- 
ography in connection with one or two universities. 
She characterizes the present situation aptly enough 
as chaotic, and says that she " can see nothing to 
bring order out of this growing chaos but organiza- 
tion and systematization on a larger scale than any- 
thing we have tried. Let the general courses con- 
tinue for the younger people, for the general work, 
always having in view the discovery of talents and 
aptitudes for specialization ; and let there be two or 
three schools in the country, connected with univer- 
sities and an integral part of them, in which the 
study of technique and administration may be con- 
nected with an outline course in medicine, law, theol- 
ogy, science, pure and applied, civics, child study, or 
whatever specialty calls for training. A university 
frequently carries on a course followed by one or 
two students only, so that a paucity of applicants 
in any one division of the work would not mean dis- 
couragement or bankruptcy. What do I mean by 
an outline course ? To begin with, the history and 
biography of a science or an art; a reading know- 
ledge of the languages in which its best treatises 
have been written ; a knowledge of the rarities and 
the curiosities of its literature ; an understanding of 
its terminology, past and present ; an acquaintance 
with its present development, tendency, literature, 
and practice," in other words, the history and bib- 
liography of scientific literature. Something of the 
same note is found in Mr. Adam J. Strohm's paper 
read at the Library School Section at the 1909 con- 
ference of the A. L. A., entitled : " Do We Need a 
Postgraduate Library School," and printed in con- 
densed form in < k Public Libraries " for February. 
"In examining the study courses of the library 
schools one cannot escape a sense of confusion from 
their mixture of trifles and ponderousness. Picture 
bulletins and story hours on one hand ; architecture 
and Latin paleography on the other. The student 
who may find interest in the one is not of the intel- 
lectual caliber that will master the other, while the 
college graduate and the more desirable library 
school students will frown at some of the food set 
before them. The library schools, in taking cogni- 
zance of certain manifestations of modernism in 
library methods and bidding scholarship to enter as 
well, are falling between two stools. It is feast for 
one and starvation for the other." 

Mr. Louis N. Wilson, the librarian of Clark Uni- 
versity, has again used the method of the question- 



naire, to bring out some mooted problems of library 
work ; this time his attention is drawn to the rela- 
tions between " The Library and the Teaching Pro- 
fession," under which title the results of his inquiry 
are published in the March " Public Libraries." 
He finds that " the situation is hopeful, and one 
cannot help the feeling that the problem is nearer 
solution than is generally supposed. Both sides are 
anxious to bring about changes, upon which they 
seem to be fairly well agreed, and all that remains 
to be done is to get to work and do it." But there 
is the rub, it seems ; for, after having given some 
examples of what a few librarians and teachers have 
to say about what should be done, and having cited a 
few instances of cooperation, he continues : " But 
these are only a few bright spots amid a sea of 
gloom. In the great majority of cases libraries are 
still far behind what they might be and the teachers 
do not afford them the help they have a right to 
expect. Teachers are, as a rule, overworked, and 
librarians have to struggle for sufficient funds to 
keep the machine going." Turning to the con- 
siderations of ideal conditions, the author outlines 
briefly what may reasonably be asked of librarians 
and teachers in order to bring the conditions about. 
" In the first place, libraries must make their books 
available to scholars. The day when people desir- 
ing to use books will be satisfied to be turned over 
to the tender mercies of a complicated card catalogue, 
has passed. Librarians should realize by this time 
that books placed in a closed stack room are fast 
dying, if not already dead books." " There should 
be a large, well lighted, and well ventilated room 
set aside for students and teachers in the library. 
In this room the most expert attendant should be 
on duty and should seek the cooperation of the 
teachers in selecting and displaying books and artic- 
les of interest to the profession. Here library rules 
and regulations, necessary in dealing with the gen- 
eral public, perhaps, should be abolished, and no 
effort spared to aid the seeker after knowledge. 
Teachers in special lines should be induced to take 
a special interest in keeping the library advised of 
any new book that they consider of value or wish to 
see." To fill out the space at the bottom of the 
column where Mr. Wilson's article closes, the editor 
has printed the following quotation from Whately : 
" It is folly to expect men to do all that they may 
reasonably be expected to do." 

What is probably the most important utterance 
made during the past year to any group of librarians 
may be read in the " Presidential Address of Fred- 
erick George Kenyon, Principal Librarian of the 
British Museum," in the September number of the 
British " Library Association Record." Mr. Kenyon 
begins by saying that he is not a librarian in the 
ordinary sense of the term, the books with which 
he has had to deal having been manuscripts ; nor 
has the practical experience of the administration 
of a great library of printed books been his. He 
proposed, therefore, to deal, not with the practical 
application of any principles of librarianship, but 



1911.] 



THE DIAJ 



79 



with some of these very principles themselves. He 
asks the pardon of the audience, if he, in so doing, ; 
should be found to utter a number of platitudes. 
" It does us no harm, I think, sometimes to turn 
our thoughts from the details of our daily work to 
the principles which inform them and the ideals 
which inspire them. The principles and ideals 
may appear to be platitudes, but like many other 
platitudes, they are sometimes in danger of being 
overlooked in practice." " Books," he says, " may 
be roughly divided into three classes, the literature | 
of the imagination, the literature of knowledge, and 
the literature of pastime," and he gives a highly 
instructive and entertaining description of these 
three classes and the way in which they are inter- 
woven with each other to form the organic whole 
known as the world's literature. The chief attrac- 
tion of a librarian's position Mr. Kenyon sees in 
the opportunity to guide the reader's taste. " Many 
of his readers are, no doubt, persons in search of 
definite information with regard to their trade or 
profession ; many others are merely in search of an 
agreeable method of passing their leisure time, but 
others are young men and women in search of edu- 
cation and self-improvement, and to them the advice 
of the librarian may mean much." And he proceeds 
to disprove, with statistics (which, he says, though 
" they often are dangerous things, and as unreliable 
as experts," often have " a steadying effect on con- 
troversy ") the current idea, popular, at least, with 
certain British newspapers and politicians, that 
libraries are chiefly concerned with the circulation 
of colorless and worthless fiction. " Libraries 
should be the salt of the nation." And he feels 
that they have an important function before them 
in guiding the workingman (and probably not the 
workingman alone) from racing tips and foot-ball 
reports to " the literature which gives refreshment 
and knowledge, the literature which gives ideas 
and expands the mind. This cannot be done all at 
once. The desire for self-culture is not a plant of 
natural growth in this country, and in the past 
many influences have been hostile to it. The people 
of this country have for two generations listened to 
the doctrine that the pursuit of material self-interest 
is the law of human progress, and they cannot now 
readily assimilate the doctrine of self-culture and 
self-training for the good of the community. . . . 
The man who considers his own material welfare 
the sole subject of importance may, if he is ignorant 
enough, think that material welfare will come to 
him from the study of betting news ; at least it is 
not for those whose daily occupation is the fluctuation 
of rubber shares to contradict him. A higher stage 
is reached when a man studies the literature of his 
own trade or profession in order that he may get 
on in it. The motive is still material self-interest, 
but it is self-interest of a more enlightened kind, 
and exercised on nobler subjects. It involves a 
training of the intellect which may lead to higher 
things. Yet a further stage is reached when the 
reader seeks knowledge for its own sake, from the 



sense of the mysterious attractions of knowledge, 
the wonders of nature, of mechanical science, of 
human life and thought. And the highest stage of 
all apart from that mystery of the intercourse of 
man with his Creator, of which I will not speak 
here the highest stage of all is reached when a 
man realizes that his supreme duty is not self-interest, 
but self-training in the interest of the community." 
In the latter part of his address, Mr. Kenyon touches 
upon the preparation of the librarian for his duties, 
the chief of which he summarizes as being concerned 
with the selection of the books for the library, the 
making them accessible to the public, and the guid- 
ance of the readers in their use. " The first is a 
matter of knowledge, subject an important pro- 
viso to financial limitations. The second is a 
matter of technical training in classification and 
cataloguing. The third is a matter again of knowl- 
edge, but still more of tact and sympathy." And 
he closes with the following appreciation of his 
former colleague, the late Richard Garnett : " His 
knowledge, which ranged from astrology to horse 
racing, approached omniscience ; if he had not the 
actual information you required at his fingers' ends, 
he could almost certainly tell you where to look for 
it, and knew something of what had been done and 
written with regard to it ; he had a reverence for 
every kind of work and research, and could enter 
into the feelings and aspirations of any one who 
would consult him ; and his good-nature was in- 



exhaustible." 



AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSOX. 



CAS UAL COMMENT. 

TOLSTOY'S DESIRE OF SECLUSION was long 
cherished by him before his secret departure from 
Yasnaya Polyana in the early morning of Nov. 10. 
A letter written to his wife thirteen years ago but 
not to be delivered to her until after his death 
has now appeared in print, in the St. Petersburg 
Novoe Vremya, and reveals a state of domestic 
friction that had long ago become hardly bearable 
to the earnest apostle of the simple life. " Long 
have I been tormented," he writes, " by the discord 
between my life and my beliefs. To compel you 
all to change your life, the habits to which I myself 
had accustomed you, I could not ; and to leave you 
ere this I also could not, believing that I should 
thus deprive the children, while they were little, of 
whatever small influence I could have over them, 
and that I should grieve you. On the other hand, 
to continue to live as I have lived these sixteen 
years, struggling and irritating you or falling myself 
under those influences and temptations to which I 
had become accustomed and by which I am sur- 
rounded, I also cannot. . . . The chief thing is 
that just as the Hindus nearing sixty retire into the 
woods, and as old religious men seek to devote their 
last years to God and not to jokes, puns, gossip, or 
tennis, so for me, enteriag my seventieth year, the 
soul-absorbing desire is for tranquillity, for solitude, 



80 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



and, if not for entire harmony, at least not for 
crying discord between my life and my beliefs and 
conscience." A still more recent communication 
to the press from Mr. P. A. Boulanger, an intimate 
friend of Tolstoy's, and one who was with him at 
the end, pictures in harrowing detail the increasingly 
inharmonious state of affairs at Yasnaya Polyana 
during the last few years. Hopelessly unadjustable 
differences of ideals and aspirations, of tempera- 
ment and of the sense of what is demanded by con- 
science, made the Tolstoy home life a growing agony 
for the ardent reformer and moralist, and scarcely 
less so for his wife and those others of his house- 
hold who failed to share his views. 

AMATEUR CENSORSHIP OF CURRENT LITERATURE, 
pithily expressed in terms of uncompromising direct- 
ness, may be found in almost any much-used public 
library list of recent accessions, especially in fiction. 
Written in pencil against various titles in these 
lists, and sometimes even on the cards in the card 
catalogue, one encounters such brief and emphatic 
commendatory or condemnatory expressions as 
"Fine," "A 1," " Tip-top," O. K.," "N. G.," 
"Rotten," "Mush," "Horrid." These and other like 
nut-shell criticisms serve to warn and advise succeed- 
ing readers much as the symbols adopted by profes- 
sional wanderers, and found on gate-posts and tree- 
trunks and dead walls along the highway, constitute 
a code understood and heeded by every member of 
the guild who is in search of a desirable place of re- 
freshment and rest. Another significant though 
mute and involuntary seal of approval or disap- 
proval is the appearance of the book itself. It is 
astonishing how invariably the more interesting 
books quickly shed their cloth covers and get them- 
selves enrolled in the library-bound regiment, and 
how a failure to win this promotion within six 
months ordinarily means permanent exclusion from 
the favored company. Critical comment, written 
in the book itself, especially at the very end, is not 
uncommon, however strongly discouraged by the 
rnling powers. All this unlawful scribbling is of 
course very wrong, but the actuating motive is 
altruistic. Being invariably anonymous, it can 
bring no fame or acknowledgment of any kind to 
the discerning and public-spirited critic. 

RECENT LIBRARY LEGISLATION IN MARYLAND 
reveals progress toward better things in that far too 
sparsely be-libraried State. The revised library law 
of 1910 created a Maryland Public Library Com- 
mission, in place of the State Library Commission 
which had existed since 1902 ; and it gives to the 
new body certain "additional functions of advising 
and stimulating the establishment of County and 
Election District Libraries, and of purchasing and 
sending one hundred dollars worth of books to lib- 
raries established under the Act." The county lib- 
rary system, as illustrated so creditably by the 
Washington County Free Library at Hagerstown, 
appears to meet local needs and fit in with local 
conditions in a way hardly possible throughout the 



country at large ; yet the hastening of the day when 
every Maryland village shall have its own perma- 
nent library administered by its own chosen officers 
is to be prayed for. We note in the " First Annual 
Report " of the newly constituted Commission that 
whereas the new library law, as originally drafted, 
provided for a yearly appropriation of five thousand 
dollars to carry on the Commission's activities, this 
amount was cut by the legislative shears to fifteen 
hundred, thus cruelly crippling that zealous band of 
workers. But, as in a damage suit, it was probably 
understood on both sides that the sum asked for 
would undergo a process of subtraction, the only 
question being the exact size of the subtrahend. 

LITERARY AND OTHER DUAL PERSONALITIES, 
such as the late William Sharp, who was both 
Saxon and Celt the latter under the pseudonym of 
" Fiona Macleod " - are likely to have new light 
thrown on their complexities of mental and moral 
structure by the new method just introduced at the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital of studying and treating 
nervous diseases. The nervous person, according 
to Dr. Sigmund Freud of Vienna, the inventor of 
this new method, is nervous simply because his un- 
conscious half is craving some satisfaction or some 
activity that is withheld. This possession on our 
part of a dual nature is of course a matter of com- 
mon knowledge ever since " The Strange Case of 
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde " reminded us of it. To 
learn what this latent self is thus dumbly and feebly 
groping for, it is proposed to subject the patient's 
dreams to expert interpretation, and thereby to 
supply the want and cure the nervousness. All very 
good, we say, if the thing the unconscious self is 
trying to do or to attain is harmless, like writing 
poetry or translating Homer or acquiring a copy of 
the original edition of " Rasselas "; perhaps some 
mute inglorious Milton may by this means be rend- 
ered vocal and illustrious. But if one's subliminal 
consciousness is fretting for the summary extinction 
of a hated enemy or an odious rival, or if the un- 
conscious part of a person is longing to seize and 
devour some particularly luscious specimen of for- 
bidden fruit, what then ? 

THE CRIMINAL'S TASTE IN LITERATURE, so far as 
that taste has been noted by public library workers 
in reference to the incarcerated criminal, is surpris- 
ingly and encouragingly high. Possibly, and indeed 
probably, in his native habitat he might not give the 
impression of possessing delicate discrimination in 
the matter of reading ; but in the quiet seclusion of 
prison life he most often chooses from the books 
offered him those that have stood the test of time 
and have earned the right to be called classics. 
The current report of the Vermont Board of Library 
Commissioners emphasizes the fact that from the 
traveling libraries sent for the last three years to 
the State Prison the books borrowed by the convicts 
have been handled very carefully, have been much 
read, and evince a demand "for a better class of 
reading than the average patron of a public library 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



81 



calls for." Among other Vermont library notes of 
interest it is cheering to read that all but sixty-seven 
of the two hundred and forty : six towns and cities 
in the State are now provided with established 
libraries; and of the unprovided sixty-seven, seven- 
teen have traveling library stations. When it is 
remembered that Vermont's total population is little 
more than half that of Boston, these figures become 
significant of much. 

EDUCATION AND EFFICIENCY are related to each 
other, necessarily and increasingly, in this strenu- 
ous age of ours ; and if a school or college is ineffi- 
cient in its methods or wasteful in its expenditures, 
it is likely to be made unpleasantly aware of the fact 
at an early stage in its struggle for existence. This 
truism by way of introduction to some brief men- 
tion of an elaborate investigation into "Academic 
and Industrial Efficiency " that has been conducted 
under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for 
the Advancement of Teaching, and whose results 
are presented in " Bulletin Number Five " of that 
Foundation. Mr. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, a mech- 
anical engineer and not a teacher, and therefore 
without the prejudices of a teacher, has made this 
investigation and written a full account of his find- 
ings. Eight institutions of learning were visited, 
and their department of physics was subjected to 
a searching scrutiny. " It may well be," remarks 
President Pritchett in a Preface to the printed re- 
port, " that a thorough-going administrative study of 
the income and expenditure of one of our large and 
newly grown universities may be more helpful to it 
at this moment than more money. We have gone 
through a period of great expansion. Just now a 
critical examination and appreciation of what we are 
getting out of the expansion is probably more to be 
desired than further expansion." These words, ut- 
tered just at the moment when the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, over which Dr. Pritchett 
presided before assuming his present office, is urging 
acute need of funds to meet the increasing demands 
made upon it, or even to continue its activities at all, 
have a peculiar significance and timeliness. 

THE GROWTH OF THE LlBBABY OF CONGRESS 

has been so increasingly rapid under its present 
able head as almost to make the observer gasp for 
breath. The current "Report of the Librarian," a 
bound volume of three hundred and five octavo 
pages, shows noteworthy recent development in all 
departments. A few random notes from its rich 
pages will convey even to the unbibliothecal mind a 
sense of the vastness and vigor of this our national 
library. Whereas there were but one hundred and 
twenty-five persons employed when Mr. Putnam 
took office not so very long ago, there are now three 
hundred and thirteen engaged in the library's various 
departments. Its book collection numbers one 
million seven hundred and ninety-three thousand 
volumes. Its expenditures for the last fiscal year 
were more than eight hundred thousand dollars. 
Its bindery handled thirty-one thousand volumes. 



Its copyright department registered more than one 
hundred thousand books, pamphlets, and other 
items. Finally, the libraries subscribing to its 
printed catalogue cards form a list filling thirty-five 
pages of the Report. But to gain a clear concep- 
tion of the Congressional Library's manifold and 
ever-inreasing activities, one needs to examine the 
Report itself, which is obtainable at a nominal price. 



THE STOEY OF A BYBON MANUSCRIPT of con- 
siderable interest to autograph-collectors and Byron- 
lovers was recently told in the " Pall Mall Gazette." 
It was the discerning eye of a London bookseller, 
Mr. Charles J. Sawyer, of New Oxford Street, that 
recognized the peculiar worth of a bit of writing 
lately offered for sale by a Nottingham auctioneer. 
The treasure was secured by Mr. Sawyer, and proves 
to be the original draft of the poet's epitaph to his 
dog Boatswain, who died in 1808 and was buried 
in the garden at Newstead Abbey, not far from the 
spot where his master was to be interred sixteen 
years later. The manuscript, given by the poet to 
the family of Job Turton, the man who erected (at 
a cost of one hundred pounds) the monument that 
attested the grief of the dog's master, passed from 
hand to hand until finally it was carried to the auc- 
tion room by a granddaughter of Turton, and so 

came to public view and into Mr. Sawyer's possession. 



THE EFFECT OF BOOK EXHIBITIONS AT COUNTY 

FAIRS is encouraging. Note has already been made 
here of last autumn's experiment, particularly in 
Indiana and Vermont, with carefully selected col- 
lections of agricultural and other works as a new 
feature at the annual "cattle-show." And now from 
Indiana, on the authority of Dr. Stanley Coulter of 
Purdue University, as quoted in the current issue 
of the " Library Occurrent," we learn that " ap- 
proximately five hundred dollars' worth of purely 
agricultural books were sold to them \i. e. the farm- 
ers] from a collection of about 75 volumes exhibited 
at the county fairs this present summer and fall." 
What further stimulus to reading and to miscellan- 
eous book-buying should be credited to these literary 
exhibits will never be known, but from the general 
interest shown on the part of the rural public it 

may be confidently reckoned as considerable. 



THE PBOPEB INGBEDIENTS OF A TEA YELLING 

LIBBABY must depend largely on the nature of 
the communities it is designed to serve. Among 
rural readers, especially feminine readers, one is 
not surprised to find the borrowers following the 
example of the small child that eats the frosting of 
its cake first and then, surfeited with sweet, perhaps 
takes little or nothing of the more substantial and 
nutritious under-layer. From the "Fifth Biennial 
Report of the Nebraska Public Library Commis- 
sion " we learn that the book collections now visit- 
ing the prairie settlements of that promising com- 
monwealth have perforce been reduced to little else 
than fiction. Starting originally with ten works of 
fiction, ten of a more serious nature, and twenty 



82 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



children's books, these travelling libraries have shown 
so extremely little wear and tear in the non-fiction 
section that gradually they have undergone the 
transformation indicated above, while the eliminated 
idle books have been set apart as a reserve collec- 
tion from which to supply study clubs, individual 
students, or other persons desiring reading matter 
of a serious sort. Eighty-three counties of Nebraska 
have in the last two years profited by the Commis- 
sion's services in this sending out of good literature, 
four hundred and forty-two requests for travelling 
libraries having been responded to. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF HARVABD LIBRARIES 

under one administrative head has at last been 
effected. In its various schools and departments the 
university numbers more than thirty separate librar- 
ies beside the main one in Gore Hall, and hitherto 
each of these has had its own librarian who has dis- 
charged his duties with no strict regard to the policy 
and proceedings of the other libraries. Now, how- 
ever, to provide an administrative head of the entire 
system, the university authorities have created the 
post of Director of University Libraries, and have 
appointed as its first incumbent Professor Archibald 
Gary Coolidge, of the class of '87, who has long been 
a liberal giver of his time and his means to the library 
of his alma mater. This coordination of university 
libraries, like that which has recently been intro- 
duced at Chicago University, should be of great 
service to the interests of economy and efficiency. 

YASNAYA POLYANA AS AN INTERNATIONAL PEACE 
MEMORIAL, which is the disposition of the estate 
said to be favored by the Tolstoy family, would 
serve a larger purpose than if simply set apart by 
Russia as a Tolstoy museum. There is no reason 
why the great peace-advocate's old home should not 
be preserved both as a memorial to him and as an 
impressive reminder of his earnest protest against 
war. A nephew of the late Count has recently ar- 
rived in this country on a mission, it is rumored, 
to Mr. Carnegie for the purpose of interesting that 
wealthy promoter of peace in the proposed plan. 
Unless Mr. Carnegie chooses to give his personal 
attention to the matter, here would seem to be a 
piece of work cut out for the trustees of the lately- 
established Carnegie Peace Fund. 

THE TARDY ACCEPTANCE OF A CARNEGIE LI- 
BRARY that was generously offered to the District 
of Columbia seven years ago is now gratefully 
noted in the current report of the Washington Pub- 
lic Library. As mentioned by us in a previous 
issue, the difficulty of getting our national legisla- 
tors to focus their gaze on so small a matter as a 
branch library for Takoma Park has seemed for 
years all but insuperable. But the impossible has 
at last been accomplished, Congress has actually 
consented to concern itself with so trivial a detail 
as a forty-thousand dollar library building, and the 
offered present to the people of the District has 
been formally accepted, with the somewhat niggardly 



stipulation, however, that no provision for mainten- 
ance shall be made over and above ten per cent of 
the total cost of the building an unwise economy, 
to be sure; but we must save our pennies for the 
fortifying of the Panama Canal. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 

THE QUESTION OF LIBRARY RENEWALS. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The paragraph in a recent issue of THE DIAL with 
reference to the renewal of books in this Library, as 
discussed in our last annual report, came to my atten- 
tion about the time I was leaving the city, and the matter 
was pushed aside and overlooked until the present time. 

Permit me to go into the question of renewals a little 
more fully than it was discussed in our annual report, 
bearing in mind that what I have to say does not apply 
to new fiction seven-day books. We look upon this 
whole matter as chiefly one of administration, for most 
of the mistakes or misunderstandings with the public 
which arise in the circulating department are in connec- 
tion with renewals, persons thinking that books had 
been renewed when they were not, and therefore 
becoming subject to fine. Furthermore, renewals are 
given practically to everyone who asks for them, so 
that anyone who wishes to retain a book four weeks 
gets it for the asking. If the Library is willing to let 
him have the book four weeks (provided he asks for it) 
it seems to us that it would eliminate a lot of red tape 
and trouble to cut out the renewals and allow the bor- 
rower to keep the book the straight four weeks if he 
wished to do so, without bothering him to have the 
book renewed in order to escape a fine. 

Most libraries in renewing books (many of them 
taking the request for renewal over the telephone) 
count the renewal as a second issue, and in that way 
the statistics of circulation are swollen; but I believe 
that that is not the best way for a Library to increase 
its circulation. To have some one sit at a telephone 
desk all day taking requests for the renewal of books 
and then count those requests as circulation, is going 
through the motions, but without giving any real ser- 
vice. I believe that the sooner our libraries cut out all 
make-believe service of this kind the better it will be 
for them and for their communities. I might add that 
at least two well-known libraries (Newark and Pitts- 
burgh) have abolished renewals, or restricted them to 
fiction, to the great satisfaction of all concerned. 

There are many books which it is impossible for a 
busy person to get through with in two weeks, and a 
fixed time limitation of that kind is in reality a limita- 
tion to the real usefulness of the library. I personally 
know of many such cases. In some instances it is true 
that to lengthen the retention period would curtail the 
general usefulness of the books ; but these instances are 
comparatively very few, and the time, trouble, and dis- 
satisfaction that this Library would save by abolishing 
renewals would, I believe, more than enable it to pay 
for the few additional duplicates that might be neces- 
sary. The best place for almost every library book in 
the circulation department is in the hands of some 
borrower, and not on the shelves waiting for the possible 
time when someone may want to use it. In every large 
library there are thousands of volumes that do not circu- 
late once in three years, and some not once in ten years. 



1911.] 



THE DIAJL 



83 



In short, as we see the problem in Grand Rapids, the 
abolishment of renewals would make for a better and 
more satisfactory service, thereby enabling the people 
to get more real use out of the library than they can 
get at present. It should be understood, however, that 
no definite action has yet been taken in the matter; the 
abolishment of renewals was simply recommended in our 
last annual report. SAMUEL H. KAXCK. 

Grand Rapids Public Library, January 10, 1911. 

HISTORY AND MACAULAY. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

That my note on " The Writing of History " should 
have called forth the scholarly paper of " J. W. T." is 
greatly to its credit. It is the more so, however, that 
so able a pleader should have been compelled to resort 
to the dexterous parry the lawyers call a plea by way 
of confession and avoidance. For he admits all that is 
claimed for Macaulay, but denies that the latter lacks 
appreciation in the house of the doctrinaires. 

Whose, then, are all the sneers I have been hearing 
for wellnigh fifty years? To all seeming they came 
straight from the schools of the pedants of research. 
It is true, they were couched in English so clumsy as 
forever to debar them from reaching posterity. Pos- 
sibly his good taste has spared " J. W. T." the pain of 
reading them. 

This correspondent also makes the point that there 
have been good writers of history since Macaulay, and 
instances a number of them. I gratefully agree with 
him, and wish that there were more of them. But 
surely this in no way contravenes my contention that the 
school of Stubbs and Freeman which had such vogue 
in the last generation and still influences the present 
deliberately slighted the graces of style and somehow 
infused into their admirers the notion that accuracy and 
bareness or slovenliness of diction were inseparable. 

The argument, based on the declaration that Macaulay 
was a great artist and that we must not look to see his 
like in many an age, strikes me as having little bearing 
on the subject. It would be absurd for everybody to 
try to write like Macaulay : to use his methods and to 
adopt his spirit is a very different matter; and it is all 
that I contended for. Mannerism is a poor equipment 
for an author of any kind. 

What Professors Adams and Hodder say of the neces- 
sity for thorough investigation before the work of the 
true historian begins, is of course sound doctrine ; but 
there certainly is no intrinsic necessity for even the most 
careful and painstaking investigator to put crude 
material before the public and call it history. Yet that 
is what many have been doing, with but little adverse 
criticism to deter them. 

As for Dr. Carl Becker, he tells us frankly that 
Macaulay bores him. Impossible as it is to understand 
his point of view, one must surmise that this judgment 
is based wholly on the attempt to read the History, and 
not the historical essays. It is inconceivable that any 
one should fail to find the latter delightful. As this 
gentleman dislikes Latin quotations (yet rashly uses 
one), I shall not quote the old adage as to tastes, but 
only remark that there are also those in this generation 
whom Walter Scott bores, just as there were few at the 
Restoration period who could abide Shakespeare. But 
one can forgive anything to a man who has so sound an 
opinion in regard to doctors' theses. 

CHARLES WOODWARD HUTSON. 

New Orleans, La., January 17, 1911. 



Cbt |Uto gooks. 



TOI.STOY, ROMANCER AND REFORMER.* 

An unforeseen timeliness marks the appear- 
ance of Mr. Aylmer Maude's " Life of Tolstoy." 
Brought to a conclusion only a few months 
before the great Russian's death, and published 
almost simultaneously with that closing of the 
book of his life, the biography, in its two thick 
volumes of fine print, presents a complete and 
authoritative account of Tolstoy's life-history. 
The writer's twenty-three years' residence in 
Russia, and his intimate acquaintance with the 
author-moralist whose works he and Mrs. Maude 
have done so much to render accessible to En- 
glish readers, together with Tolstoy's expressed 
confidence in his biographer's scholarly equip- 
ment and thorough trustworthiness, inspire a 
not unreasonable confidence in the elaborate 
work now offered to the British and American 
public after a careful revision at the hands of 
Countess Tolstoy. 

The treatment of Tolstoy's life and character 
naturally divides itself into two parts : the his- 
tory of the romancer and the history of the 
reformer ; and to each of these a volume is 
devoted, although with much inevitable over- 
lapping on both sides. These two personalities 
of the man become more and more at war with 
each other as he grows older, the moralist and 
reformer finally almost displacing the creative 
artist of the earlier years. But while the two 
natures are felt to be mutually antagonistic, 
each grievously hampering the free activity of 
the other, they yet in a certain sense aid and 
strengthen each other; for without his deep 
moral convictions Tolstoy could not have made 
his fiction so impressive and of so powerful 
appeal to humanity at large, nor without his 
fine mastery of literary art could he have reached 
so many readers with his ethical, religious, and 
social-reform writings. 

How early the serious problems of life, and 
even some of the abstruse questions of meta- 
physics, began to interest him is revealed in 
the story of his life. It even appears that when 
about twelve years of age he arrived, unaided, 
at a pretty clear notion of the meaning of 
" solipsism," without of course knowing that 
this was its name. A passage from his much 
later written " Boyhood," quoted by Mr. Maude, 
makes this apparent. As revealing thus early 
the combined speculative, self-indulgent, and 

* THE LIFE OF TOLSTOY. By Aylmer Maude. In two 
volumes. Illustrated. New York : Dodd, Mead & Co. 



84 



[Feb. 1, 



self-chastising elements in his nature the fol- 
lowing extract is significant : 

" It will hardly be believed what were the favorite 
and most common subjects of my reflection in my boy- 
hood go incompatible were they with my age and 
situation ... At one time the thought occurred to me 
that happiness does not depend on external causes, but 
on our relation to them; and that a man accustomed 
to bear suffering cannot be unhappy. To accustom 
myself therefore to endurance, I would hold Tatishef's 
dictionaries in my outstretched hand for five minutes 
at a time, though it caused me terrible pain; or I would 
go to the lumber room and flog myself on my bare back 
with a cord so severely that tears started to my eyes. 
At another time, suddenly remembering that death 
awaits me every hour and every minute, I decided 
(wondering why people had not understood this before) 
that man can only be happy by enjoying the present 
and not thinking of the future; and for three days, 
under the influence of this thought, I abandoned my 
lessons, and did nothing but lie on my bed and enjoy 
myself, reading a novel and eating honey-gingerbreads, 
on which I spent my last coins. . . . But no philosophic 
current swayed me so much as scepticism, which at 
times brought me to the verge of insanity. I imagined 
that except myself no one and nothing existed in the 
world, that objects are not objects but apparitions, ap- 
pearing only when I pay attention to them, and disap- 
pearing as soon as I cease to think of them. . . . There 
were moments in which, under the influence of this fixed 
idea, I reached such a stage of absurdity that I glanced 
quickly round hoping to catch Nothingness by surprise 
where I was not." 

Very early there appear signs of his zeal for 
reform, and his restless desire to make over the 
world according to the ideal that, for the time 
being, presented itself to him as the pattern of 
perfection. In one of his many and usually 
discreditable love affairs we find him actually 
engaged to be married to an apparently respect- 
able girl ; but in a sudden fit of moral reform 
he allowed himself to assume toward her the 
role which, twenty-five years later, he was to 
play for the benefit of the world at large, and 
reproached her with the unworthy and frivolous 
nature of her interests and occupations, giving 
vent to some scathing sarcasms against the 
fashionable society she found so delightful, and 
making himself so odious to the lively young 
lady that one cannot be surprised at the dis- 
continuance, not long afterward, of their inti- 
macy. 

Some of the hereditary influences that shaped 
Tolstoy's character are traced by the author. 
On his father's side, and still more on his 
mother's, he came of aristocratic stock more or 
less in passive opposition to the ruling powers 
and sharing the humanitarian sympathies prev- 
alent in the early years of the reign of Alexan- 
der I. A cousin of Tolstoy's mother was one 
of the Decembrists, and on the accession of 



Nicholas in 1825 participated in their unsuc- 
cessful attempt to establish a constitutional 
government ; for which he was exiled to eastern 
Siberia for thirty years and condemned to hard 
labor in irons for a part of that period. From 
Tolstoy's mother it was that Tolstoy the novelist 
inherited his genius for romance and his remark- 
able language sense. She was a woman of 
education, had five languages at her command, 
and possessed a remarkable gift for impromptu 
fictitious narrative of the most delightful de- 
scription. In the same way that afterward the 
son could hold a circle of army comrades spell- 
bound by the charm of his improvised tales, so 
the mother would in her maidenhood draw 
around her a group of companions who gladly 
forsook the fascinations of the ball to hear her 
tell a story in a dark room where her shyness 
would be shielded by the gloom. " Her most 
valuable quality," Tolstoy has related, " was 
that though hot-tempered she was yet self- 
restrained." Of the father, early cut off by an 
attack of apoplexy, some pleasing traits are 
sketched in " Childhood," from which it ap- 
pears that he was most agreeably remembered 
by the son as " sitting with grandmother on the 
sofa, helping her to play Patience. My father," 
he adds, " was polite and tender with every one, 
but to my grandmother he was always parti- 
cularly tenderly submissive." Leo was the 
youngest of the five children (four sons and a 
daughter) born to Nicholas and Marie Tolstoy, 
and he lost his mother in 1830, when he was 
not much over eighteen months old, and his 
father seven years later. His Aunt Tatiana 
(in reality a very distant relative, but affec- 
tionately called " aunty " by the orphans) was 
in some sort a mother to Leo after his own 
mother's death, and seems to have had great 
influence over him. 

Tolstoy's university days at Kazan and St. 
Petersburg, his army experiences in the Caucasus 
and in the Crimean War, the irregularities and 
impetuosities that preceded his happy marriage 
at the age of thirty-four, and his subsequent 
fruitful years at Moscow and at Yasnaya Polyana 
(his birthplace and the part of the family 
property that fell to his share when he came of 
age), are all treated with fulness of detail by 
his biographer, who has made wise use of 
Tolstoy's own writings, both his letters and his 
published works, to illustrate his development 
and indicate his dominant aims and interests. 

It is not surprising to find that from the very 
start Tolstoy's writing activities were hampered 
in the most trying fashion by the official censor 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



85 



of the press. In an early letter to his brother 
Sergius he complains that "Childhood was 
spoilt and The Raid simply ruined by the 
Censor. All that was good in it has been struck 
out or mutilated." With no freedom in the 
literary expression of his germinating ideas and 
ideals, the wonder is that Tolstoy gained so 
early and so marked success as he did. The 
non-Russian reader of his life will see reason 
to be thankful not to owe submission to any 
such despicable satellite of despotism as strove 
to put out the new light that was breaking on 
the world of letters in the middle of the last 
century. Characteristic criticisms of his earlier 
works are quoted by Mr. Maude from the 
author's own lips. These comments, it will of 
course be remembered, are from Tolstoy the 
reformer. 

"He told me that in War and Peace and Anna 
Karenina his aim was simply to amuse his readers. I 
am bound to accept his statement; but one has only to 
read either of those books to see that through them 
Tolstoy's ardent nature found vent, with all its likes 
and dislikes, strivings, yearnings, hopes, and fears. I 
asked Tolstoy why in What is Art f he relegates these 
great novels to the realm of ' bad art '; and his answer 
showed, as I expected it would, that he does not really 
consider them at all bad, but condemns them merely as 
being too long, and written in a way chiefly adapted to 
please the leisured well-to-do classes, who have time 
for reading novels in several volumes, because other 
people do their rough work for them. Of War and 
Peace he said, ' It is, one would think, harmless enough, 
but one never knows how things will affect people,' and 
he went on to mention, with regret, that one of Profes- 
sor Zaharin's daughters had told him that from his 
novels she had acquired a love of balls and parties; 
things of which, at the time of our conversation, he 
heartily disapproved." 

Like all authors of repute, Tolstoy was 
sought out and more or less grievously pestered 
by aspiring and admiring young writers, poets, 
and would-be poets, and by the idle curious 
who swarm about a celebrity of any sort. To 
one of these uninvited visitors, who had brought 
a set of verses with him and desired the great 
man's opinion of them, he delivered himself in 
the following frank and characteristic fashion : 

" There is nothing original here ; and besides, every- 
body writes poems nowadays. There are hundreds and 
hundreds of people turning them out ! And not one of 
them writes a single good line. In the days of Poushkin 
and LeVmontof there used to be poetry, but not now. 
Verses have gone out of fashion. And what's the good 
of them? You will agree that prose expresses our 
thoughts much better it is easier to read and has 
more sense in it. Take our conversation, for instance: 
We say what we want to. But if some one tried to put 
it into verse, it would come out all upside-down. Wher- 
ever a definite, clear expression is wanted, it either 
spoils the rhythm, or doesn't suit the style: and one has 



to substitute some other word, often far from the real 
meaning." 

Little has here been said of Tolstoy's later 
labors. With these, and with the abnormal 
place in his mind occupied by the sex question, 
the second volume of Mr. Maude's work chiefly 
concerns itself. One cannot but be disagreeably 
impressed with the strength and persistence of 
Tolstoy's animal passions, and with his morbid 
fondness for puzzling over the eternally insol- 
uble sex problem. His biographer, in pictur- 
ing him as gaining in old age a glorious victory 
over his baser nature, gives him perhaps too 
much credit. The low desires that we gradually 
outgrow we are always too prone to regard as 
triumphantly overcome. 

The reason why Tolstoy himself, and why 
this life of him, are so fascinatingly interesting 
must be chiefly because the man so strikingly 
illustrates the duality in all human nature. He 
is ever at war with himself, and yet no com- 
plete conquest on either side is possible or, 
indeed, desirable. The study of his troubled 
life helps one better to understand what is 
meant by the " eternal antinomies." 

PERCY F. BICKNELL. 



PEXXSYL.VAXIA EV HISTORY.* 



Pennsylvania has always been somewhat in 
the case of the man who lost his shadow. How- 
ever great or formidable it was, it did not seem 
to project any effluence beyond itself ; people 
did not see any Brocken spirit cast upon the 
clouds. The good and sufficient reason for this 
has been the distrust and depreciation of litera- 
ture which has always prevailed in the Keystone 
State. The Quaker blood, the Dutch tempera- 
ment, the tincture of the Southern spirit a 
spirit which has always seen everything in 
society as Malebranche saw everything in God, 
have combined to keep down any literary 
outburst or output. Pennsylvania has been a 
bitter stepmother to her imaginative sons ; at 
best, it has regarded them as a hen does her 
brood of ducklings. While New England made 
idols of its writers, Pennsylvania has turned 
such unprofitable children out of doors for fear 
that they might impart some touch of color to 
the drab of its disposition or suspend for a 
single minute the maxims of Poor Richard. It 
has been Sparta in act but Bosotia in thought. 



PENNSYLVANIA IN AMERICAN HISTORY. By Hon. 
Samuel Whitaker Penny-packer. Philadelphia : William J. 
Campbell. 



86 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



It has said to all within its borders, " Do some- 
thing useful, and be honored. Invent a shovel, 
or be a magistrate." It has never realized that 
imagination and enthusiasm and charm pre- 
vail more mightily over mankind than utility. 
What is the result ? New England's influence 
has been, and is, dominant from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific ; the sayings and doings of a group 
of not absolutely first-rate writers are treasured 
all over the world. There are people in 
England and Germany who really think that 
America consists of Concord, Brook Farm, 
Walden Pond, and Harvard University. But 
Pennsylvania has depended on the Deed and 
despised the Word, and the Word and the 
world have left it severely alone. 

No charge of disregarding the Word can be 
brought against Ex-Governor Pennypacker, 
whose book on " Pennsylvania in American 
History " has just been published. For many 
years the author has held up the historian's 
torch to illuminate the greatness and virtues of 
his State. He has not only had to face criti- 
cism and misrepresentation from without, but 
some hatred and obloquy from his own folk. 
To be shot in the back by the soldiers you are 
trying to urge to victory is the hardest fate 
that can befall a captain. 

The deeds and men of Pennsylvania have 
been mighty, in very truth. Take its generals 
of the Civil War, Meade, McClellan, Han- 
cock, Reynolds, McCall, Humphreys, Birney, 
Gibbon, Park, Naglee, Smith, Cadwallader, 
Crawford, Heintzelman, Franklin, Gregg, 
Geary, Pennypacker, and Hartranft. It is 
hardly too much to say that this galaxy 
equalled in military talents and proved effi- 
ciency all that all the other Northern States 
contributed to the officering of the Union 
armies. Or take its three great names of the 
Revolution, Franklin, Morris, and Wayne. 
The success of the American cause was probably 
due as much to them as to any other three who 
can be named. Ex-Governor Pennypacker shows 
that Morris financed the Revolution, Stephen 
Girard the War of 1812, and Jay Cooke the 
Civil War. Franklin was of Massachusetts 
birth, but his life-work was done in Pennsyl- 
vania. There are really two Franklins, 
one, the great patriot, statesman, and philoso- 
pher, who loomed so large in the eyes of his 
contemporaries both here and in Europe ; and 
the other the business man and retailer of petty 
proverbs, who was nothing- in his own day, but 
who has since become the Franklin of fame and 
has stamped himself on the American mind. 



Ex-Governor Pennypacker quotes from Henry 
Adams's History of the United States this pas- 
sage : "If the American Union succeeded, the 
good sense, liberality, and democratic spirit of 
Pennsylvania had a right to claim credit for 
the result." And again : " Had New England, 
New York, and Virginia been swept out of ex- 
istence in 1800, democracy could have better 
spared them all than have lost Pennsylvania." 

Ex- Governor Pennypacker discusses such 
matters as the history of Congress Hall in 
Philadelphia, the Louisiana Purchase, George 
Washington in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania 
and Massachusetts, German Immigration, the 
Dutch Patroons of Pennsylvania, the High- 
Water Mark of British Invasion, Gettsyburg, 
and a number of other allied subjects. One of 
the most engaging and valuable of his contri- 
butions to history is a somewhat extended biog- 
raphy of General Anthony Wayne. Though 
one of the most popular of American heroes, as 
his sobriquet " Mad Anthony " and the efflor- 
escence of his name all over our map show, the 
facts of Wayne's career are little known. He 
fought from Canada in the North to Georgia in 
the South, and in after life against the Indians 
in Ohio. His most daring exploit the capture 
of Stony Point remains perhaps the most bril- 
liant feat of arms in our history. With four- 
teen hundred men he attacked and captured a 
fort on a steep hill a hundred and fifty feet 
high, defended by six hundred British troops 
with eight cannon. But he was practically in 
everything during the Revolution the battles 
of Brandywine, Germantown, Paoli, Monmouth, 
Yorktown, and Savannah, and he was always 
sent to the front. Washington leaned on him 
more than on any other one man. His defeat of 
the Indians on the Miami opened the West to 
civilization. In most of his engagements dur- 
ing the Revolution, Wayne was in command 
of the Pennsylvania Line, an almost separate 
organization of thirteen regiments, which in the 
worst times formed the bulk of Washington's 
army. In a similar way, during the War of 
the Rebellion, Pennsylvania had a complete 
division in the field. The present writer feels 
a touch of personal interest in this last matter, 
because his father, who was a member of the 
Pennsylvania Legislature during the first three 
years of the Civil War, was of some service to 
Governor Curtin in passing the bill for the 
formation of the Pennsylvania Reserves. 

Of this same Legislature, ex-Governor Pen- 
nypacker writes : " At half-past four on the 
morning of April 12, 1861, the rebels opened 



1911.] 



THE DIAI, 



87 



fire upon Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. 
Before the sun went down that day Pennsyl- 
vania had appropriated five hundred thousand 
dollars with which to arm the State. This first 
step in the war upon the part of the North, 
quick as a flash, three days before the call by 
the President for troops, followed by New York 
on the 15th, and the other States later, is one 
of those momentous and over-powering events 
that determine the fate of nations, to be remem- 
bered with the crossing of the Rubicon and the 
Dinner of the Beggars of the Sea." 

Rather unaccountably, ex-Governor Penny- 
packer has omitted in his testimony any re- 
ference to the naval glories of Pennsylvania. 
Philadelphia was the nursery of the American 
navy, and Barry, Bainbridge, Dale, Stewart, 
Decatur, and Hull were natives or residents of 
that city. 

Another lack which we confess we feel is the 
one glanced at near the beginning of this re- 
view, a dearth of the humanizing light of let- 
ters. History is an elastic word, and in the mod- 
ern conception of the term includes much besides 
Statesmanship and War. Ex-Governor Penny- 
packer has not made the most of what Penn- 
sylvania has to show in this field. If he had 
given us a study of Charles Brockden Brown, 
the first American romance writer, who fascin- 
ated Shelley, influenced Hawthorne and Poe, 
and is good reading yet on his own account ; 
if he had given us some account of Thomas 
Buchanan Read, some of whose graceful or fiery 
lyrics will live long in our literature ; if, best of 
all, he had made an analysis, as he could prob- 
ably do better than anyone else, of the genius 
of Charles Godfrey Leland, whose "Hans 
Breitman" is one of the greatest creations of 
American humor, he would, we think, have 
rounded out his book and given it a wider 
appeal. As it is, he has made a truthful, log- 
ical, and often eloquent plea for the preemin- 
ence of Pennsylvania. 

CHARLES LEONARD MOORE. 



THE HERO OF QUEBEC.* 

Of the lives of great men of action 
Napoleon, Cromwell, "Washington, Nelson, and 
their kind the world never grows tired. Such 
a man of action was James V\ r olfe, the appear- 
ance of a volume of whose letters is, or should 
be, an event of importance in the literary world. 
Editor and publisher have combined to produce 

*THE LIFE AXD LETTERS OF JAMES WOLFE. By 
Beckles Willson. Xew York : Dodd, Mead & Co. 



a substantial and attractive volume, containing 
a great deal of material bearing on both the 
public and private life of the hero of Quebec 
which has never before appeared in print. The 
book will appeal to the average uncritical reader 
because of the intimate light it throws on the 
character of one whose brief career was so 
packed with dramatic situations and splendid 
achievements. That it will appeal with equal 
force to the serious student, is questionable. 
Undoubtedly the book contains material of the 
highest importance, not elsewhere accessible in 
print ; and if the editor had carried out the 
promise of his preface, his work would rank 
with Doughty 's " Siege of Quebec " and Wood's 
" Logs of the Conquest of Canada," filling in 
fact the one remaining gap hi the literature of 
the great siege. The student had every right 
to expect that Mr. Willson would remember the 
one essential characteristic of such work 
that his transcripts should agree word for word 
with the originals. Unfortunately, they do not. 
Not only is the spelling and punctuation of 
Wolfe's originals not followed, but whole sen- 
tences are omitted, or represented by only a 
word or two. It cannot be positively stated that 
this criticism applies to all the letters, as a 
large number of the originals are not accessible ; 
but as it certainly does apply to some, there is 
reason to fear that the whole work is unreliable. 
Not only is the text inaccurate, but the 
editor's comments are in many cases not what 
one would expect from one who has made such 
a close study of his subject. He refers to " Sir 
Charles Saunders" in 1759, although the 
admiral did not receive knighthood until 1761 ; 
similarly, Pitt is spoken of as " Chatham," 
though he was not elevated to the peerage until 
1766. These are but trifles, comparatively. 
A much more serious error is the statement on 
page 422 that " Saunders was merely to co- 
operate with Wolfe, whenever that military 
commander should stand in need of such ser- 
vices as the navy only could give. Otherwise 
he was to * cover ' Wolfe's army, and keep con- 
trol of his communications." He adds that 
Saunders exceeded his instructions, and gave 
Wolfe " a warm and loyal support." The 
King's secret instructions to Wolfe and Saunders 
bear no such interpretation. On the contrary, 
they make it perfectly plain that Saunders was 
expected to give Wolfe " a warm and loyal 
support"; that, in fact, the attack on Quebec 
was to be a joint one, in which the army and 
navy were to work in perfect harmony. The 
King wrote : 



88 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



" Whereas, the success of this Expedition will very 
much depend upon an entire Good Understanding be- 
tween Our Land and Sea Officers, We do hereby strictly 
enjoin and require You, on Your part to maintain and cul- 
tivate such a good Understanding and Agreement, and 
to Order, that the Soldiers under Your Command shall 
man the Ships, when there shall be occasion for them, 
and when they can be spared from the Land Service, As 
the Commander in Chief of Our Squadron is instructed, 
on His Part to entertain and cultivate the same good 
Understanding and Agreement and to order the Sailors 
and Marines under His Command, to assist Our Land 
Forces and to man the Batteries, when there shall be 
occasion for them, and when they can be spared from 
the Sea Service; And in order to establish the strictest 
Union that may be, between You and the Commander 
in Chief of Our Ships, You are hereby required to com- 
municate these Instructions to Him as He is directed 
to communicate those He shall receive from Us to 
You." 

As to the Letters themselves, one would like 
to quote many passages for the sake of the new 
light they throw on Wolfe's character and 
motives, and the clarity of his vision as a 
military commander. One or two must, how- 
ever, suffice. In one of the letters to his 
mother, we find this modest appreciation of his 
own merits : 

"The officers of the army in general are persons of 
so little application to business and have been so ill 
educated, that it must not surprise you to hear that a 
man of common industryjis in reputation amongst them. 
I reckon it a very great misfortune to this country that 
I, your son, who have, I know, but a very modest capa- 
city, and some degree of diligence a little above the 
ordinary run, should be thought, as I generally am, one 
of the best officers of my rank in the service. I am not 
at all vain of the distinction. The comparison would do 
a man of genius very little honour, and does not illus- 
trate me, by any means; and the consequence will be 
very fatal to me in the end, for as I rise in rank people 
will expect some considerable performances, and I shall 
be induced, in support of an ill-got reputation, to be 
lavish of my life, and shall probably meet that fate 
which is the ordinary effect of such conduct." 

This was written in 1755, before the Roehefort 
expedition. That same disastrous campaign 
forms the text of one of Wolfe's letters to his 
friend Rickson, in November 1757, in which 
he lays down those sound principles of coopera- 
tion between army and navy which he was after- 
ward to illustrate so brilliantly at Quebec, and 
the ignorance of which, on the part of his com- 
manding officers, made the Roehefort expedi- 
tion such a dismal failure. He says : 

" I have found out that an Admiral should endeavor 
to run into an enemy's port immediately after he ap- 
pears before it; that he should anchor the transport 
ships and frigates as close as he can to the land; that 
he should reconnoitre and observe it as quick as pos- 
sible, and lose no time in getting the troops on shore; 
that previous directions should be given in respect to 
landing the troops, and a proper disposition made for 
the boats of all sorts, appointing leaders and fit persons 



for conducting the different divisions. On the other 
hand, experience shows me that, in an affair depending 
upon vigour and dispatch, the Generals should settle 
their plan of operations, so that no time may be lost in 
idle debate and consultations when the sword should be 
drawn; that pushing on smartly is the road to success, 
and more particularly so in an affair of this nature; 
that nothing is to be reckoned an obstacle to your under- 
taking which is not found really so upon trial; that in 
war something must be allowed to chance and fortune, 
seeing it is in its nature hazardous, and an option of 
difficulties; that the greatness of an object should come 
under consideration, opposed to the impediments that 
lie in the way; that the honour of one's country is to 
have some weight; and that, in particular circumstances 
and times, the loss of a thousand men is rather an ad- 
vantage to a nation than otherwise, seeing that gallant 
attempts raise its reputation and make it respectable ; 
whereas the contrary appearances sink the credit of a 
country, ruin the troops, and create infinite uneasiness 
and discontent at home." 

An interesting point arises in connection 
with the fact that Durell, instead of sailing to 
the St. Lawrence at the earliest possible mo- 
ment, kept his ships in idleness at Halifax, and 
so permitted Bougainville, with news of Pitt's 
plan of campaign, and with a couple of frigates 
and a score of storeships, to slip up the river to 
Quebec. Mr. Willson suggests that, had 
Durell done his duty, Wolfe, " instead of the 
long and dreary task before him, might have 
fallen on the enemy's weak point and won vic- 
tory in July instead of September." The argu- 
ment is not convinciug, but it suggests a curious 
question : Had Quebec fallen in July, without 
the sacrifice of the life of the British general, 
Washington might have had to cope with the 
genius of Wolfe instead of with the mediocrity 
of the actual commanders. What, then, might 
have been the fate of America ? 

LAWRENCE J. BURPEE. 



A HISTORY OF Six MILLION YEARS.* 

" When the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its 
waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, 
Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind 
that she had never before seen a Rabbit with either a 
waistcoat-pocket or a watch to take out of it, and, burning 
with curiosity she ran across the field after it, and was 
just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under 
the hedge." Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

The modern student of animal life finds him- 
self somewhat in the position of Alice. The 
close study of fossil mammals has revealed to 
him that these animals carry time-pieces, not 
exactly in their waistcoat pockets, but in their 
bones and teeth. Burning with curiosity, he 

*THB AGE OF MAMMALS in Europe, Asia, and North 
America. By H. F. Osborn. Illustrated. New York: 
The Macmillan Co. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



89 



pursues them in holes in the ground, whence 
he has extracted in recent years many of the 
wonders to be seen by anybody who will trouble 
himself to visit the larger museums. 

The Age of Mammals, the subject of Profes- 
sor Osborn's new book, may have lasted about 
six million years, more or less. Estimates vary 
from less than three to over six millions, but it 
is probable that the larger figure is more nearly 
correct. A million years is a long time, but it 
is only about five hundred times the distance 
between us and the birth of Christ. During 
the Age of Reptiles, when gigantic Dinosaurs 
walked the earth, our humble ancestors were 
slowly evolving. According to Professor Os- 
born, their real beginning, as mammals, was 
some fifteen million years prior to the "Age of 
Mammals." All through this long period they 
were small and despised, with little to suggest 
their future glories. Even at the end of the 
cretaceous, the dinosaurs " were in the climax 
of specialization and grandeur ; they moved 
amidst a stately flora of palms and sequoias 
interspersed with bananas and fig trees, and a 
very rich deciduous tree flora of modern south 
temperate type." We do not know what blight 
overtook them ; there was no world-catastrophe, 
for the plants show only gradual change. Per- 
haps the developing mammals, numerous and 
prolific if small, made away with the food sup- 
ply. If a pair of rabbits and a pair of elephants 
were enclosed in the same pasture, and left to 
multiply as best they could, it would only be a 
matter of time for the rabbits to starve out the 
elephants. However it may have been, the 
great reptiles disappeared, leaving only a fauna 
resembling in most respects that of to-day, 
while the mammals began to increase in size 
and number of kinds. From this time on they 
underwent a rapid evolution, while most other 
forms of life were relatively stationary ; hence 
they afford unrivalled chronological data, 
enabling us to determine the relative ages of 
different strata very exactly, although not 
knowing the actual time-period represented by 
each. Finally, as we near the present age, 
man appears, first of all in types so low that 
they are now considered to belong to extinct 
species of Homo. 

Is it fair to unscientific readers to recom- 
mend to them such a book as that of Professor 
Osborn? The author himself says : " Although 
I may not claim that any parts of this volume 
are light reading, I have endeavored both to 
hold the attention of those who are already 
within the charmed temples of palaeontology 



and to attract new votaries to its shrines. It 
should, however, be clearly understood that 
considerable sections of this work are purely 
documentary and may be passed over rapidly 
by the general reader." This admitted, he 
nevertheless declares that he shares " Huxley's 
confidence in addressing those who are willing 
to do a little serious thinking in order to enjoy 
the vast vistas of interesting truth which come 
as the reward of effort." In truth, the work is 
largely technical, yet not unintelligible. It 
sets forth, in a manner not before attempted, 
the history of that time in which the modern 
mammals, and finally man, evolved ; a tremen- 
dous drama of absorbing interest, only now 
beginning to be well understood. It is beauti- 
fully illustrated by maps and photographic 
figures, and especially by Mr. Charles R. 
Knight's very clever and spirited restorations 
of the extinct animals. Are the cultured classes 
of to-day so stupid or so lazy that they can get 
nothing out of all this? Such a suggestion 
would be unjust, yet are there not grounds for 
a suspicion that the mass of easy reading every- 
where available tends to crowd out serious forms 
of literature? This is indeed a familiar com- 
plaint, and perhaps there is no remedy. Never- 
theless, I believe that something may be done 
to stem the evil tide. Suppose that some suit- 
able organization or journal were to take partic- 
ular pains to pick out and enumerate the new 
books which really added to human thought, 
and were not too technical to be fairly intelligible 
(no new body of ideas is likely to be wholly 
inteJligible to anyone!) to the cultured lay 
reader. Suppose then that those interested in 
the movement, with or without definite organi- 
zation, made it their business to get acquainted 
with as many of these works as possible, to talk 
about them, and have them placed in public 
libraries. I can imagine such a movement 
doing much to initiate more robust intellectual 
habits, though it might occasionally deteriorate, 
the boundary between honesty and humbug 
having worn so thin. 

T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



StsCE writing his introductions to the various volumes 
of Dickens's works that have appeared in " Everyman's 
Library," Mr. G. K. Chesterton has discovered a good 
deal more to say about Dickens, his times and his char- 
acters. He has therefore been revising and enlarging his 
introductions, and they have been collected and are to 
be published in a separate volume by Messrs. E. P. Button 
& Co. Mr. Chesterton has written two entirely new 
chapters for this book, and it will contain some hitherto 
unpublished portraits of Dickens taken by a friend. 



90 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



THE GENIUS OF BALZAC.* 

The fame of Balzac has grown enormously 
in the last half-century. Of his own genera- 
tion, he alone fully recognized his supremacy 
as a novelist. His contemporaries preferred 
the lurid fiction of Sue and Soulie to the 
Comedie humaine, and even Sainte-Beuve 
compared his genius to these masters of 
ultra-Eomantic barbarity. Sixty years have 
passed, however, since the publication of that 
famous causerie, and the enemies of Balzac 
have long since joined him in the grave. Death 
has brought forgetf ulness, and time a truer per- 
spective. The personal idiosyncrasies of the 
author his vulgarity and his egotism have 
dwindled into matters of literary history ; and 
what survives for us is the creator of the mod- 
ern novel. 

It would seem that the time were ripe for an 
adequate biography. Antiquarians have raked 
over all the old anecdotes. Students have 
spent days comparing and verifying the data of 
Balzac's life. Even his note-book is soon to 
be published, and we shall lack nothing of im- 
portance except the last letters to Mme. Hanska. 
In spite of this, however, we have no adequate 
French biography. Brunetiere and Monsieur 
Le Breton have kept to literary criticism, and 
the Vicomte de Lovenjoul to antiquarian re- 
search and bibliography. 

The result of this is a second English Life of 
Balzac, reflecting this recent scholarship on its 
antiquarian side. It makes a very interesting 
volume, and Mr. Lawton deserves the thanks 
of all Anglo-Saxon readers. He has brought 
together all the important facts and anecdotes, 
briefly analyzed the novels, and enriched his 
narrative by an admirable selection of illustra- 
tions. An excellent introductory chapter fixes 
the subject in its historical background, and 
upon this canvas the figure of Balzac is depicted 
with no glossing of realistic detail. The great 
novelist was not a literary Galahad, and per- 
haps this fact has contributed somewhat to the 
coldness of the picture. The vivid portraits 
accent this lack of warmth. " Exceedingly 
sane," however, the book certainly is; for the 
first time we have a study of Balzac in which 
the adjective " vertiginous " is not employed ! 

But such excellence is not without its defects. 
Admirable as a corrective to partizan enthusi- 
asm, interesting enough as a collection of anec- 
dotes, Mr. Lawton's delineation will fail to in- 

* BALZAC. By Frederick Lawton, M.A. Illustrated. 
New York : Wessels & Bissell Co. 



spire the general reader. We could have wished 
for a portrait less purely external. The ideal 
biography will have its reservations, surely ; but 
after all its criticism, it will present the per- 
sonal force of the man. It will justify to us 
the conception of Rodin. Mr. Lawton's Balzac, 
one must confess, could hardly have written the 
Comedie humaine. He is less the genius of 
the letters than the vulgar little man of the 
anecdotes, and many of the anecdotes present 
a figure which seems to be almost wholly clay. 
Honore de Balzac was, undoubtedly, a tremen- 
dous egotist ; and if we can forgive that quality 
in a living person, we cannot forgive the egot- 
ism of those whom we have never known. We 
know that Balzac's egotism was balanced by 
all those qualities which go to make up personal 
charm. His contemporaries loved him or 
hated him ; the warmth of his genius vitalized 
them all. But two generations later we can 
only recapture that vital heat in his novels or 
his letters, a task of greater difficulty than the 
interpretation of the anecdotes. And so the 
biographer is led to forget the genius in the 
bourgeois gentilhomme. 

We must remodel our conception of genius. 
All the genius of Shakespeare did not give him 
the moral repulsion of his age toward the actor's 
life, or turn his exuberant manhood from 
the petty crime of deer-poaching. All the 
genius of Balzac did not prevent him from 
engaging to write an article, and then dickering 
with a nameless author to furnish him with the 
product for him to sign and sell. But this does 
not militate against the genius. It only com- 
plicates the task of the biographer. He must 
give us a synthetic picture, a picture with its 
light and shade, but with the force of unity 
throughout. He must interpret the man by 
the genius or the genius by the man ; the only 
escape from this dilemma means the reduction 
of biography to pure antiquarianism. But we 
need not go so far. It is his art which reveals 
most clearly the subconscious part of the artist's 
mind, and the qualities by which the artist lives 
for us are, after all, the qualities by which he 
really lived. The true biographer will find the 
genius more important than the man. 

This is the task which confronts the would- 
be biographer of Balzac. It explains the lack 
of a French biography, and it may serve to 
excuse the defects of this one. The story of 
Balzac's life might be made more wonderful than 
any of his novels ; it seems more wonderful in 
the letters to Mme. Hanska. For these letters 
are a veritable journal. Egotistic but vital with 



1911.] 



THE DIAJL 



91 



energy, crude, uncorrected, spontaneous, they 
give us Balzac's very self ; his personality rises 
from their pages as the genie from the jar in 
the Eastern tale. One feels at last the personal 
force of his genius. We can almost see him at 
his writing table its solid mahogany worn by 
the constant friction of his arm, as for eighteen 
hours a day he composed or corrected his novels, 
scribbling " between two proofs " the letters to 
his Russian Prlncesse lointaine. We feel the 
fire of his inspiration, " work, always work, 
nights of flame succeeding nights of flame, days 
of meditation to days of meditation, execution 
to conception, conception to execution." We 
hear his exultant cry as he recounts his accom- 
plishment, see the reaction and note the cost : 

" To-day I have finished ' La Recherche de 1'Absolu.' 
Heaven grant that the work be good and beautiful. I 
cannot jndge of it; I am too weary with toil." 

" This morning I rebelled against my solitude. I 
wanted to roam the world, to see what the Landstrasse 
was, to put my fingers into the Danube ... in short, 
to do anything but write pages ; to be living instead of 
turning pale over phrases ! " 

This is the real Balzac, the vividness of whose 
personality Mr. Lawton has missed. Nor are 
such passages unique in these letters : 

" Between this dolour and the distant light of love, 
what are men, the world, society ! There is nothing 
possible but the incessant work into which I throw my- 
self work, my saviour, which will give me liberty and 
return to me my wings. I quivered on reading your 
reasoning: No letters, he is coming.' . . . I am seized 
by periodic furies to leave all behind me, to escape, to 
spring into a carriage ! Then the chains chink down ; 
I see the thickness of my dungeon. If I come to you 
it will be a surprise, for I can no longer make decisions 
on that subject." 

These are details, perhaps, that Mr. Lawton 
would better have left in the words of Honore 
de Balzac, instead of questioning the depth of 
the novelist's love. And against the vulgarities 
of Balzac's egotism he might have set another 
paragraph, equally egotistic, but overlooked in 
his biography : 

" My life is varied only by ideas ; physically, it is 
monotonous. I speak confidentially with no one but 
Mme. de Berny or with you. I find that one should 
communicate but little with petty minds. ... I am 
vowed to great feelings and it is an odd contrast with 
my apparent levity. . . . What sentiments, feelings, 
I have made visible in my work is but the faint shadow 
of the light that is in me ... In twelve years I have 
had neither anger nor impatience; the heaven of my 
heart has always been blue. Any other attitude is, to 
my thinking, impotence. Strength should be a unit, 
and after having for seven years measured myself with 
misfortune and vanquished it, and risen, to gain literary 
royalty, every night with a will more determined than 
that of the night before, I have, I think, the right to 
call myself strong." 



This is the Balzac of Rodin. Everything about 
him is colossal, even his faults. The very vir- 
tues assume in him a monstrous quality ; his 
industry, like his extravagance, has all the 
excess of a debauch. " At this moment I am 
a little drunk with work," he cries ; and, in 
another place, " I have no time to live . . . 
my life is a torrent." In the Romantic gener- 
ation, so full of curious types and exotic tem- 
peraments, he seems almost like a man of to-day. 
And it is the life of to-day that he interprets, 
the materialism of which one critic claims that 
Balzac was the creator. He was not the creator 
but the diviner of that nascent materialism, now 
grown like a cancer into our modern life, just 
as Musset was the interpreter of the Romantic 
malady of his own age. Absolute opposites, 
Musset and Balzac sum up the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Musset's moral suicide typifies the shat- 
tering of Romantic theories. Balzac's herculean 
energy foreshadows our modern strenuosity, 
affording us a spectacle probably unique in 
art, the incarnation of a Napoleonic will. 

LEWIS PIAGET SHANKS. 



RECEXT FICTION.* 



For some time past we have been hearing of a 
prodigious French novel entitled " Jean-Christophe," 
the work of M. Remain Holland. The author has 
not hitherto been known as a novelist, but as a critic 
of music and the drama, a playwright, and a biog- 
rapher of musicians. His " Jean-Christophe " has 
been appearing in sections, each of them the length 
of an ordinary work of fiction, and the end is not 
yet, although the author is well on the way toward 
having written a million words. During recent 
months, our curiosity has been whetted by certain 

* JEAN-CHRISTOPHE. Dawn Morning Yonth Re- 
volt. By Roma in Rolland. Translated by Gilbert Caiman. 
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 

MRS. FITZ. By J. C. Snaith. New York : Moffat, Yard 
&Co. 

LADY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. A Man's Portrait of a 
Woman. By A. T. Qniller-Couch. New York : Charles 
Scribner's Sons. 

PEOPLE OF POSITION. By Stanley Portal Hyatt. New 
York : Wessels & Bissell Co. 

MAX. By Katherine Cecil Thurston. New York : 
Harper & Brothers. 

THE WAY DP. By M. P. Willcocks. New York : John 
Lane Co. 

THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. By Meredith 
Nicholson. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co. 

THE IMPOSTER. A Tale of Old Annapolis. By John 
Reed Scott. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. 

OUT OF DROWNING VALLEY. By S. Carleton Jones. 
New York : Henry Holt & Co. 

DIXIE HART. By Will N. Harben. New York : Harper 
& Brothers. 



92 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



expressions of critical opinion which have seemed 
to verge upon the extravagant, and, altogether, we 
are glad that the work is to be placed in the hands of 
English readers. We say " is to be " advisedly, for 
the volume of six hundred pages now translated by 
Mr. Gilbert Cannan reproduces only about one-half 
of the French text already published, and we cannot 
say what fraction it will prove to be of the work when 
completed. It comprises the four sections called 
" Dawn," "Morning," " Youth," and " Revolt," and 
leaves the hero a youth of twenty, at the outset of 
his real career. A few words about the author may 
be of interest. He was born in 1866, a Frenchman 
of unmixed descent. He got his education in Paris 
and Rome, and it was in the latter city, in 1890, 
that he met Malwida von Meysenbug (made the 
victim of an extraordinary error in the present 
translation by being called " Weysenburg"), the 
friend of Kossuth, Mazzini, Herzen, Blanc, and 
most of the other great mid-century idealists. This 
famous woman influenced him deeply, and found his 
spirit closely akin to theirs. It was at this time that 
the embryo of " Jean-Christophe " took shape in his 
mind, although the book was not to be actually under- 
taken for many years. Meanwhile, M. Rolland was 
winning his spurs as lecturer, critic, and dramatist, 
and as the author of lives of Beethoven, Michel 
Angelo, and Hugo Wolf. He describes in the fol- 
lowing terms the motives which impelled him to 
write the work now under consideration : 

" I was isolated : like so many others in France, I was 
stifling in a world morally inimical to me. I wanted air : I 
wanted to react against an unhealthy civilization, against 
ideas corrupted by a sham elite : I wanted to say to them : 
1 You lie! You do not represent France! ' To do so I needed 
a hero with a pure heart and unclouded vision, whose soul 
should be stainless enough for him to have the right to 
speak ; one whose voice should be loud enough for him to 
gain a hearing. I have patiently begotten this hero. The 
work was in conception for many years before I set myself 
to write a word of it. Christophe only set out on his journey 
when I had been able to see the end of it for him." 

It takes a good deal of a book to justify so large 
and ideal a conception as this, but we are inclined 
to believe that the author has " made good." It is 
the sort of book into which a man puts the whole of 
himself, the sort of book which, once written, makes 
it almost inconceivable that its author should ever 
produce another. Its enormous length may cause 
affright, and few will resist the temptation to skim 
over the surface in a good many places. It has not 
the compelling power and the closeness of texture 
which hold us to the pages of such books as " Joseph 
Vance" and The Old Wives' Tale," for example, 
but it is a work of such deep sincerity and power 
of psychological analysis that even a hurried 
perusal cannot fail to leave a lasting impression. 
M. Rolland's hero is a genius by temperament, 
and a musician by accident. He is a native of a 
little village on the Rhine, and necessarily a German, 
since his character is that of a musician in the most 
idealistic sense. He becomes an adopted Frenchman 
by an act of revolt against the brutal militarism of 
his native country, and remains a Frenchman from 



the time when he finds refuge across the frontier. 
There is something symbolical in this, for, as the 
translator says : " The book itself breaks down the 
frontier between France and Germany. If one 
frontier is broken, all are broken. The truth about 
anything is universal truth." We might add that it 
is the peculiar province of the musician to express 
universal truth, and to know no barriers of soil, or 
of race, or of speech. The author says that he has 
"always conceived and thought of the life of his 
hero and of the book as a river." It is the flow 
of the Rhine that mingles with Jean-Christophe's 
earliest infant imaginings, and the thought of his 
own life as a river is one that is always present 
in his mind. Moreover, "the river is explored as 
though it were absolutely uncharted. Nothing that 
has ever been said or thought of life is accepted with- 
out being brought to the test of Jean-Christophe's 
own life." We do not believe that this is the 
method of the greatest art whatever Tolstoyans 
may think but it is M. Rolland's method, and 
we must take his book upon its own terms if we 
are to get from it what it has to offer. Anything 
like a summary of the book, or even of the portion 
now translated, is out of the question in this review. 
Two hundred pages are needed for the first fifteen 
years of the boy's life, and four hundred for the 
next five. We are simply given the chronicle of 
the countless incidents and imaginings, the countless 
defeats and triumphs, of those tender years. The 
boy is morbidly sensitive, with a tenfold endow- 
ment of passion, of capacity for happiness or grief. 
When he awakens to self-consciousness, it is in a 
stolid world which does not understand him in the 
least. He longs for love and sympathy, and finds only 
indifference and self-interest. He makes unselfish 
advances, and is rebuffed. He glows, and is chilled. 
Moreover, his environment is for the most part 
sordid and miserable. He is a human boy, also, and 
makes missteps, but his inherent purity and idealism 
save him from disaster. And he gradually works 
his way out of bewilderment into something like 
fulness of vision. But no words of ours can ac- 
count in any adequate way for this book, which is 
clearly one of the most vital and significant works 
of fiction that our age has produced. 

One always wonders what Mr. Snaith is going to 
do next, and is sure only that it will be something 
surprising. And " Mrs. Fitz " is assuredly a sur- 
prising successor to " Fortune," " Araminta," and 
"William Jordan, Junior." It is a blend of Mer- 
edithian comedy and "Zenda" romance, being 
concerned with a Princess of Illyria who marries 
an English gentleman, and scandalizes the country- 
side by her ways. The good people of the county 
do not know her origin, and take her to be a circus 
woman whom Fitzwaren has picked up somewhere. 
The Illyrians wish to get her back, and to annul her 
marriage, because she is next in succession to the 
sovereign, and her match has been of the runaway 
sort. So they first seek to kidnap her, and failing 
in this, they get the King himself to visit England 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



93 



under a transparent incognito, to plead with her in i 
the interests of the dynasty. The old King is an j 
engaging rascal, and has his way with the recalci- 
trant princess to the extent of persuading her to re- i 
turn with him. But he is assassinated soon there- 
after, and thus it becomes the task of the deserted 
husband and a band of loyal friends to rescue the 
Princess from her Illyrian durance, and bring her 
triumphantly back to the English domestic hearth. 
It all makes the liveliest of stories, and combines 
real characterization and delicate social satire with 
the more robust melodrama of its main action. 

Colonial New England in the eighteenth century 
is the scene of " Lady Good-for-Xothing," which is 
the latest blend of history with romance contrived 
for us by Mr. Quiller-Couch. It offers a bitter 
arraignment of the puritan spirit, and a strong love- 
story, the two figures chiefly concerned being those 
of a New England girl and a King's official. The 
girl's brutal treatment at the hands of the puritan 
magistrates she is publicly flogged for Sabbath- 
breaking so arouses the official's indignation that 
he champions her cause, and even demands to be 
set beside her in the stocks. Thus begins a very 
tender and beautiful romance, which is continued as 
the girl grows into the woman under the new sur- 
roundings provided by her rescuer, and leads to the 
efflorescence of a passionate love between them. 
This love is not sanctioned by the church, because 
the woman has become so embittered toward religion 
that she will have none of that consecration, but 
only narrow souls would deny that she remains a 
pure woman. Afterwards, the scene shifts to Lisbon, 
where Sir Oliver grows recreant to his obligations, 
and wickedly yields to the fascinations of a Portu- 
guese charmer. Whereupon the Earthquake sharply 
recalls him to his duty, and almost reduces him to 
a death-bed repentance. But he is spared, after 
all, and Ruth consents to be made his wife in the 
sight of the law. This latter part of the story is 
given us largely by indirection, in extracts from 
imaginary letters, a sort of narrative in which the 
author is particularly skilful. This is one of the 
best of Mr. Quiller-Couch's many good books, and 
its interest is unfailing. That interest has for its 
elements a piquant humor, a deft use of historical 
fact, a power of incisive characterization, and a 
spiritual insight, such as few writers of fiction have 
at their command. 

A man of good English family, who has been an 
adventurer in various parts of the globe for some 
ten years, and who has signally failed to u make 
good," yields to the call of home, and returns to 
London. The well-to-do members of his family 
look upon him as a black sheep, and their welcome 
is not exactly cordial ; but they have a sense of duty 
of a certain sort, and are much concerned lest the 
vagrant brother do something to discredit him. 
They are " People of Position," in the City and the 
world of villadom. and their only standards are 
those of respectability and worldly success. Now 
Jimmy Grierson, who would willingly have met 



them half way, is so chilled by their attitude, and 
so repelled by their prim conventionality, that he 
seeks metal more attractive, and soon finds it in the 
charming person of Lalage Penrose, a victim of the 
London streets. With her he contracts a liaison 
which is delightful while it lasts, but for which the 
exiguous income of a Fleet Street journalist, with 
a precarious footing at best, coupled with a tendency 
to drown his sorrows in the cup that inebriates, does 
not provide an adequate basis. Then they are torn 
apart, Lalage going into rural retirement for a 
season of repentance, and Jimmy into seclusion to 
become a great novelist. He is thus fairly on the 
way toward social rehabilitation, and soon gets 
so far as to contract an engagement with the 
canon's daughter, when his past is disclosed to her 
horrified ears, and the fat is all in the fire. He 
now turns his back for good upon the world of smug 
conventionality, hunts up Lalage in her country re- 
treat, begs her forgiveness for his desertion, and 
persuades her to marry him. The author of this 
rather sordid and far from original story is Mr. 
Stanley Portal Hyatt, whose novels have hitherto 
concerned themselves with colonial life, and who 
does not seem quite at home in his new environ- 
ment His bitterness toward " people of position" 
is such that he cannot invest them with any redeem- 
ing qualities, while on the other hand he endows 
his heroine (in spite of her lapses) with most of the 
imaginable virtues, and makes her the chief object 
of our sympathetic interest. This, of course, is an 
easy thing to do if one resolutely sets about it, but 
the morality of the proceeding is dubious, to say 
the least. 

A young woman of the Russian nobility, having 
had an unfortunate matrimonial experience, and, 
being in imminent danger of another, resorts to the 
somewhat unusual expedient of cutting off her 
beautiful hair, donning man's clothes, and fleeing 
to Paris. Her name is Maxine, which she con- 
veniently abbreviates to the first syllable, and thus 
the last touch is given to the transformation. She 
is an artist in soul, and establishes herself in a studio 
at Montmartre, where she sets feverishly about 
developing her new career. A warm-hearted Irish- 
man whose acquaintance she has made on the 
journey, is touched by her charm ( but of course all 
the time thinks her a boy) and constitutes himself 
her friend-in-chief . A delightful camaraderie grows 
up between them, the man quite naturally unable to 
account to himself for the appeal which she makes 
to him. Love has its inevitable way, after the girl 
has struggled in vain against it, and after the man 
has learned her secret. This is the story of Mrs. 
Thurston's " Max," and it is one of the tenderest 
and loveliest stories that are often met with. Flushed 
with the spirit of youth, and sweet with the fragrance 
of sentiment, it is a pure and gracious idyl, yet not 
untouched by the deeper suggestion of passion. 
Other figures play their parts in the drama, and 
supply effective foils for hero and heroine. And 
perhaps the most exquisite touch of all is provided 



94 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



by the use of phrases from Charpentier's "Louise " 
as leading motives for the action. Nothing could 
be more fitting or more beautifully conceived than 
this heightening of the novelist's art by borrowings 
from the sister art of music. 

Miss M. P. Willcocks, in The Way Up," has 
given us a strong and absorbingly interesting novel 
which judiciously mingles an economic with a 
domestic interest. The former is provided by 
Michael Strode's experiment in industrial coopera- 
tion, the latter by his marrying the wrong woman. 
He first comes before us as a young man fresh from 
the university, who is facing the world with a 
determination to reform it, or at least some small 
spot of it. This means that he turns aside from the 
smooth path prepared for him by the wealthy uncle 
who has provided his education, enlists in the ranks 
of the workers, and aims to achieve success by his 
own unaided efforts. This is rather scandalizing to 
his people, who are of good social standing ; but he 
proves his mettle, and establishes the cooperative 
enterprise of his dreams. It is really his wife's 
money which makes this outcome possible, and when 
he discovers that her ideals are at the opposite pole 
from his, and that she has married him with the 
notion that she would bend him to her wishes, he is 
found unexpectedly stubborn, and refuses to yield 
an inch. Upon this, she goes her way, takes to the 
stage, and becomes a popular actress. Her with- 
drawal cripples the business, but he carries it on 
with grim determination, and his iron will eventu- 
ally accomplishes its purpose. Meanwhile, the right 
woman is near him all the time, an associate in his 
daily affairs, and when the wife dies, is more than 
willing to become her successor. This is the dry 
outline of a novel which makes anything but dry 
reading. Miss Willcocks has an extraordinary 
power of characterization, and has given us a group 
of eight or ten very real and strongly individualized 
people. Her work has, moreover, an intellectual 
quality far out of the common, exhibited both in 
her dialogue and her descriptive passages. The 
book is one in which ideas are everywhere astir, 
yet it is not made arid by any lack of human sym- 
pathy. It almost seems to us to deserve the state- 
ment that it carries on the sane tradition of George 
Eliot's novels, and has many of that great writer's 
qualities of substantial workmanship. 

Written in a vein suggestive of " The New 
Arabian Nights," whimsical, ingenious, and divert- 
ing, "The Siege of the Seven Suitors" will be 
found a source of mild enjoyment by all who find 
their way to its pages. Mr. Meredith Nicholson 
has written more exciting novels than this, and 
novels more seriously related to life, but nothing of 
surer appeal and charm. It concerns the senti- 
mental history of a young woman whose eccentric 
and romantic maiden aunt has devised an original 
plan for fitting her niece with a husband. The 
seventh man who proposes is to win her, but of 
course none of the aspirants knows that a too early 
declaration will seal his fate. The fun waxes fast 



and furious when the possible winners are reduced 
to two in number, and it becomes necessary so to 
engineer their movements as to dispose of the wrong 
one first. The chief agent in bringing about the 
desired result is a " consultant in chimneys," who 
is a guest in the country house which witnesses 
all these stirring complications, and who gets the 
heroine's sister Hezekiah as a consolation prize for 
his disinterested activities. 

Mr. John Reed Scott is a pleasant romancer, 
devoid of virility and dramatic force, but skilful in 
neat structural devices, vivacious, and entertaining. 
"The Im poster," his latest production, is a tale of 
Annapolis in colonial days (the Stamp Act period), 
and has to do with the fortunes of a fair English 
visitor, besieged by many suitors, and the belle of 
the province. Among these suitors is an engaging 
rascal who sojourns in Annapolis under a borrowed 
name, and cuts a wide swath in the local society. 
He must be described as a villain manque, for he 
has good qualities, after all, which are permitted 
to emerge in time to make of him an acceptable 
husband for Miss Stirling, in the reader's estima- 
tion no less than in her own. The chief excitement 
of the tale is provided by a raid of pirates real 
pirates, with a gentlemanly cut-throat for their 
leader upon the shores of Chesapeake Bay. The 
unmasking of Long Sword, and the scene in which 
he makes a gallant end, are quite well done in the 
manner of artificial romance. 

" Out of Drowning Valley," by Mr. L. Carleton 
Jones, may be described as a " rattling " good story 
of a plucky adventurer who has been in Sing Sing, 
a spirited girl, a resourceful villain, and a gold mine 
guarded by a secretive tribe of Indians. The hero 
befriends an Indian who lets him into the secret, the 
girl saves his life and makes him a devoted lover, 
and the villain seeks to compass the destruction of 
both, being ingeniously disposed of when his vil- 
lainies have reached their sum. We are kept in 
suspense by being made to believe that the hero has 
a wife in the East, and the heroine's discovery of this 
woman's existence creates the temporary estrange- 
ment without which no well-planned novel of the 
present species would be complete. But the wife 
turns out to be only a stepmother, and the man's 
convict record only the result of his mistaken chiv- 
alry in bearing the consequences of her misdeeds. 
Even at that, she dies conveniently, and the truth all 
comes out, whereupon the hero wins the girl, and 
gets away with a reasonable amount of the gold 
before the mine is sealed for good by flood and 
cataclysm. 

The commonwealth of Georgia has no cause to 
complain of literary neglect. It has been brought 
to the attention of the reading public by two men 
as famous as Richard Malcolm Johnston and Joel 
Chandler Harris, and its local chronicle is acceptably 
continued by Mr. Will N. Harben. Mr. Harben's 
homely novels might fairly be criticized for looseness 
of construction and lack of depth ; but within their 
unpretending limits, they offer highly satisfactory 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



95 



work. The humors of the Georgian country folk, 
their village complications, their eccentric types, 
and the daily round of their rural life, are portrayed 
with sympathy and fidelity to fact in the long series 
of books to which u Dixie Hart" is now added. 
The plot is simple. A village store-keeper is mar- 
ried to a vinegary woman whose former husband 
has deserted her and is thought to have been killed 
by an Oklahoma cyclone. Living near by is Dixie 
Hart, a beautiful girl who is trying to release her 
farm from a mortgage, and who toils in the fields 
for this purpose and to support her widowed mother. 
The store-keeper befriends the girl, and they are in 
love with one another before they realize the fact. 
It turns out, of course, that the Oklahoma cyclone 
had failed to do its duty, and the return of the first 
husband leaves the second one free to follow the 
dictates of his heart. This is the substance of a 
story whose chief interest is in incident rather than 
plot. What we really enjoy are such things as the 
horse-trade with its sharp practice, the outwitting 
of the skinflint who holds the mortgage, the exploits 
of the tombstone agent, and the practical joking of 
old Wrinkle, the father-in-law. These are quite 
joyous matters, and the zest with which Mr. Harben 
gives his account of them arouses a corresponding 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 



BRIEFS ox NEW BOOKS. 

In a small volume of duodecimo 
Proportions, Mr. Ernest A. Savage, 
librarian of the Wallasey Public Li- 
braries, has told " The Story of Libraries and Book- 
Collecting" (Dutton) for the " English Library 
Series." After prefatory apologies for daring to fel- 
low in the footsteps of Edward Edwards, whose 
'* Memories of Libraries " is now out of print, ex- 
pensive, and also not up-to-date, the author sketches 
rapidly and in bare outline the history of ancient 
libraries, of mediaeval libraries and the preservation 
of the Greek and Latin classics, of early monastic 
libraries and the main stream of learning in the 
West, of the Renaissance and book-collecting, and 
of the principal libraries of modern times, arranged 
by countries. In so condensed a work there are 
necessarily many things omitted that one or another 
critical reader might wish to see included ; and 
there are also, in so crowded a list of dates and 
events, occasional minor errors. For example, in 
his opening chapter Mr. Savage awards to Professor 
Hilprecht all the credit of discovering the Temple 
Library at Nippur, whereas Dr. John Henry Haynes, 
the director of the expedition, and a veteran in the 
field of Babylonian excavation, unearthed this Nip- 
pur collection after pushing his explorations to a 
depth of eighteen feet, when the half-dozen rooms 
containing the precious tablets were unexpectedly 
disclosed. To Professor Hilprecht, who was asso- 
ciated with him. and whose scholarly labors are not 



to be undervalued, due honor must be paid, but 
not to the exclusion of Dr. Haynes's name. Mr. 
Savage's ranking of the Boston Public Library 
building as second in magnificence, in this country, 
to that which shelters the Library of Congress will 
soon require correction when the New York palace 
of literature in Forty-second Street is completed. 
His reference to the Philadelphia Library's ' branch 
at Ridgeway" is based on a misconception, Ridge- 
way being a personal, not a geographical designa- 
tion, and the said branch being situated almost in 
the heart of the city. It looks a little strange to 
see our famous giver of library buildings referred 
to as "Dr." Carnegie. As supplementary matter to 
this useful compendium there are added a few pages 
of " brief notices of book-collectors and librarians," 
a list of " principal works consulted for this book," 
and an index. As a sort of vade mecum for busy 
librarians the little book is sure of a welcome. 



omemo - Alfred Saunders Walford 

of a popular better known to novel-readers as " L. 
,tor V -writer. ft Walford," which being amplified 
stands for Lucy Bethia (Colquhoun) Walford 
has seen so much of the world, both literary and 
non-literary, in the course of the forty or more years 
during which she has been producing her score and 
a half of popular works of fiction, as to enable her 
to add to her goodly list of books a volume of 
entertaining reminiscences of places and persons, of 
more or less noteworthy happenings and conversa- 
tions, to which she has given the title, " Recollections 
of a Scottish Novelist" (Longmans). Born in 1845, 
she early acquired a liking for printer's ink, and 
has never lost the appetite. Indeed, the flatter- 
ing reception of her first book, "Mr. Smith," 
which brought her, besides considerable English 
money and English fame, a check for twenty pounds 
and a gratifying letter from an honest American 
pirate, was enough to confirm her in her addiction 
to authorship. Even royalty itself, in the person 
of Queen Victoria, paid homage to the new lit- 
erary light, and we are told that as long as she 
lived she never failed to read each successive novel 
by the author of "Mr. Smith." More noteworthy 
still, a contribution to the " St. James Gazette " 
from Coventry Patmore coupled the names of 
Thomas Hardy and L. B. Walford as two living 
writers <; whose work of this kind [i. e. the picturing 
of the times in which they lived] can scarcely 
be surpassed," and as worthy to be named in the 
same breath with Scott and Fielding and Goldsmith. 
What prouder triumph could a young writer wish 
for? Mrs. Waif ord's early life in Edinburgh brought 
her into familiar contact with such personages as 
Professor Blackie, Dean Ramsay, Dr. John Brown, 
Sir William Fraser, and Sir Noel Paton. Neither 
the subject-matter nor the literary skill are lacking 
to her to write acceptably, even though somewhat 
desultorily and superficially, of her more memor- 
able experiences. Portraits and other pictorial 
matter contribute to the book's inviting aspect 



96 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



An inspection of Mr. John Headley's 
excellent work entitled " Tramps in 
Dark Mongolia" (Scribner) shows 
that most of the actual wanderings of its author 
were really within the confines of China proper ; and 
thus the title of the book is slightly misleading. 
Nevertheless, we have an interesting account of a 
country which is destined to attract more and more 
attention from the world. This is the age of the 
railway, and both China and Russia are eager to 
develop the resources of this great country. When 
the day comes, on Mongolia's plains and in her 
valleys, that one locomotive will do the work of five 
thousand camels, the resources of this vast region of 
over a million square miles will be brought into 
the world's market. The general note of the book 
is that of an earnest missionary, who wants the 
people enlightened, lifted up, and inspired with 
enthusiasms as great as those of earlier days, when 
some mysterious propulsion sent the Mongol in his 
ships as far as Japan and on horseback as far as 
western Russia. Mr. Headley's hope is that the 
same vigor and enthusiasm will be set to working 
out moral and peaceful problems that will make 
Mongolia a garden, rather than the semi-desert it 
is to-day. His book has many pages and chapters 
of interest ; he is no merely curious traveller, but 
is well informed as to the history of the country and 
people, so that he tells us what has happened at 
various places, and correlates the landscape with the 
events that once influenced half the world. A 
student of art and architecture, he interprets the 
symbols of Buddhism as they are sculptured in this 
land, which is peculiarly the garden of Buddha. 
Whether among the grass-lands, with the people at 
the fairs, in the shadow of the pagodas, in the 
brigand countries, or at the Lama temples, he is at 
home, and tells his story well. He makes friends 
with the abbots and monks, and incidentally shows 
us how very much alike are the many varieties of 
human nature, East and West. He stirs our optim- 
istic impulses to hope that when the Mongols find 
equal opportunities with the rest of the world, in 
the fields of transportation, science, and mingling 
of the ideas and inventions of many races and ages, 
they will rise to their opportunity. 

Nine posthumous pieces, mostly pub- 

Addresses of a > jj , i PTT 

social reformer. " c addresses, trom the pen of Henry 
Demarest Lloyd, are gathered into 
a handy, clearly-printed volume under the general 
title, " Mazzini and Other Essays " (Putnam). In 
addition to "Mazzini: Prophet of Action" the 
book contains chapters on William Morris, with 
whom the author was privileged to spend a memor- 
able day, on Emerson's wit and humor, on Sir 
Harry Vane, on certain ancient Dutch notions, on 
free speech and the right of assemblage, the scholar 
in practical affairs, the question whether personal 
development is the best social policy, and an im- 
aginative sketch, after the order of " Looking Back- 
ward," in which a new and a far better Chicago 



(of a century hence) is delightfully described. The 
old city, deliberately burned down in 1971, on the 
centennial anniversary of the historic " great fire," 
and ploughed up, disinfected, and " sown with 
aromatic plants for many years before it was sweet 
again," gave place to " a great park, and in it arose 
universities, theatres, libraries, meeting-halls, colos- 
seums for sports and public festivals, and temples 
of every religion professed by the millions living 
around. Room was made for all with equal willing- 
ness in the spirit of the ancient Emerson, that all 
the religions were one wine in different colored 
glasses." Of Emerson himself, whose name recurs 
with frequency in Mr. Lloyd's pages, he says in the 
chapter devoted especially to him that he was a wit 
and a humorist, even though too little recognized as 
such. Quotations from his pen are given in proof 
of the assertion, and form interesting illustrations 
of his Yankee shrewdness and talent for terse and 
telling phrases, but can hardly make us think of 
him as conspicuously a humorist or preeminently a 
wit. In all these papers of Mr. Lloyd's the earnest- 
ness and moral purpose of an ardent and idealistic 
nature eloquently speak. 

Asia Minor is a quarry for startling 
^Shly people, archaeological discoveries. All the 

great nations of antiquity marched 
through its mountain passes and fought on its plains. 
One of the mightiest of these, and at the same time 
the least known, was that still mysterious people 
called the Hittites. Dr. John Garstang's " Land of 
the Hittites " (Dutton) is a vade mecum on the sub- 
ject. The author made a trip of exploration through 
the territory once occupied by that warlike and ag- 
gressive nation, and in this volume has presented 
a survey of the whole subject. His discussion of 
tke geographical boundaries of the Hittite sway is 
intensely interesting, covering as it did nearly the 
whole of Asia Minor, and extending eastward into 
Armenia and southward into Syria. He gives a 
moving picture of the peoples who down to the 
Seljuk Turks occupied successively Asia Minor. 
The monuments of the Hittites now in full view of 
the explorer are very fully shown in superb half- 
tones. They were photographed in all parts of the 
ancient Hittite realm, and reveal how thoroughly 
that territory was covered by them. An elaborate 
discussion is given to the northern capital of the 
nation, at the site of the modern Boghaz-Keui, de- 
fended at one time by a tremendous acropolis, 
ramparts, and other fortifications. The author sets 
forth very vividly the splendor of their palaces and 
walled cities, their sculptures and their massive re- 
liefs. His ninety splendid illustrations give us a 
hint of the advancement made in civilization and 
culture by those hardy peoples of the northern 
mountains and plains, at a period ranging from 
about 3000 B. c. down to the eighth century B. c. 
But their real history will not be known until 
scholars can translate, not guess at the meaning of, 
the many inscriptions which we now possess. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



97 



Mr. Joseph H. Longford's " Story of 
A n outline of Qld J apan ( Longmans) is intended 

Japanese history. , J i_ i_ 

for lay readers who have not the 
time or the inclination to study Japanese history 
through native sources or through more scholarly 
and original treatises by foreign students. The 
writer's long residence in Japan, his travels and 
sojourns in all parts of the Empire, and his acquaint- 
ance with the native language and literature render 
his presentation of Japanese history much more 
than a mere abridgment of earlier productions ; but 
he frankly acknowledges the secondary and popular 
nature of his work as compared with that of 
Chamberlain, Satow, and Aston, and readers of 
Griffis will find little that is new in the present 
volume. The chapters on mythology and the semi- 
mythical periods of history appear to lack the sym- 
pathy and insight of corresponding chapters in 
Griffis. From the beginnings of true history to the 
persecution of the Christians the writer gives so 
little attention to the life of the masses, to social 
customs, to literature and art, that the Japanese 
people are lost to view amid the constant wars of 
feudal lords. The reader can but vaguely guess at 
the progress of civilization. Fortunately, however, 
many incidents and episodes of history are related 
in detail which have been for centuries the classic 
themes of literature and art. The latter chapters of 
the book surpass theearlierin insight and enthusiasm. 
Great personalities of the later centuries are clearly 
portrayed. The horrible persecutions of the Christians 
are related in detail, and plentiful quotations from 
contemporary accounts render this chapter vivid. 
The author's attitude toward the Portuguese mis- 
sionaries is generous, and his condemnation of the 
Dutch merchants unsparing ; it is to be questioned 
whether in either case he shows discrimination. Six 
appendices add greatly to the value of the volume. 
Affording, as it does, in a clear and readable style, 
an outline of Japanese history, and showing the 
roofs of present dominant race traits deeply planted 
in the soil of the ancient past, the book is to be 
welcomed as an addition to popular literature on the 

Orient. 

Biographical Entertainment of his readers appears 
studies in to have been Mr. Bram Stoker's 

imposture, ^f o jjj ect m writing his " Famous 

Impostors " (Sturgis & Walton), for he announces 
in his Preface that the author, ' ; whose largest ex- 
perience has lain in the field of fiction, has aimed 
at dealing with his material as with the material 
for a novel, except that all the facts given are real 
and authentic " in his opinion, at least. The 
book is unquestionably of a character to interest 
the majority of readers, treating as it does of a con- 
siderable number of noted impostors of various kinds, 
such as pretenders to royalty, practitioners of magic, 
clairvoyants, so-called witches and wizards, women 
playing the role of men, the authors of various 
hoaxes, the famous Tichborne Claimant, and others. 
Of course that popular favorite, Cagliostro, is made 
to perform a few of his celebrated tricks for the 



reader's entertainment, nor is any hint conveyed 
that he was not as genuine a trickster as the best of 
them. No echo from Mr. W. R. H. Trowbridge's 
recent attempt to prove him an honest man is heard 
in Mr. Stoker's account of him. Perhaps it is too 
soon to expect it. The concluding chapter of the 
book is the longest and shows the most study and 
original research. It is a serious, an unexpectedly 
serious, examination of the legend of the so-called 
Bisley Boy, the person substituted, if the tradition 
be true, for the infant Elizabeth when that princess 
had suddenly died of a fever at Bisley, and her 
nurse, in an agony of fear, was momentarily expect- 
ing King Henry to pay his little daughter a visit. 
That Mr. Stoker, almost against his will, was led 
to take a great interest in this astonishing legend, 
speaks at least in favor of its plausibility. Though 
it was obviously necessary to omit from his book a 
great many famous impostors, the author might, 
with timeliness, have added a chapter on notorious 
frauds in the field of geographical exploration. The 
book is handsomely printed, and has some well- 
chosen portraits. _ 

A new ^S^ has a 5611 in th e Ori- 



The builder* 

ofeariv ent. The long-disputed and hotly- 

Babvionia. contested question as to the real 
originators of the civilization of Babylonia is prac- 
tically settled. Mr. Leonard W. King's recent vol- 
ume entitled " A History of Sumer and Akkad " 
(Stokes) forms the latest and most complete discus- 
sion of the problem. Being an expert Assyriologist, 
Mr. King has utilized with rare skill the curious 
and complicated cuneiform inscriptions that have 
been excavated in Babylonia during the last twenty 
years. He has marshalled the evidence in a master- 
ful fashion to show when the so-called Sumerians 
came into Babylonia, what they captured, what 
city-states they organized and ruled, what 
religion they possessed, and what culture they 
developed and contributed to their successors, the 
Babylonians and Assyrians. On the evidence of 
the original documents themselves, the Sumerians 
came into Babylonia not earlier than 3400 B.C., 
and assumed sway over the Semites then occupying 
it For thirteen hundred years, or until 2100 B.C., 
they developed, expanded, and attained a degree 
of culture that, for bold originality and vigorous 
growth, has no peer in the Orient. Their successors 
in Babylonia, at the founding and unification of the 
great monarchy, were little more than imitators of 
the unique Sumerians. The language and the art 
of these non-Semites is beautifully illustrated in 
this very convincing and timely volume. 

Impression, of The title of ***' C - Reginald Enock's 
American travel new volume, " Farthest West : Life 
bv a Briton. and Travel in the United States" 
(Appleton), is a trifle misleading, for the author's 
starting point is on British shores, and his entertain- 
ing book deals with travel not in the States of the 
Pacific Coast alone but rather throughout our entire 
country. It has, however, a strong western flavor, 



98 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



for the writer is evidently at home in the mining 
regions of California. He is an observant traveller, 
but his book is not lumbered up with guide-book 
minutiae. It is rather an assessment of values, 
scenic, geographic, economic, industrial, social, and 
political of things American as they penetrate 
the comprehension of our typically conservative 
brother from across the seas. Mr. Enock even at- 
tempts an analysis of American humor ! He seems, 
however, to have lived long enough in America to 
have become tainted by our national vice of exag- 
geration in his portrayal of some of our failures and 
shortcomings, though on the whole his criticisms will 
appeal to the candid reader as just and often gener- 
ous, and however scathing they are always interest- 
ing and worth reading. Like most books of such 
a general nature, this offers some minor examples 
of misinformation. One hardly expects to observe 
the " white tower-buildings of New York," as one 
approaches the Statue of Liberty from Sandy Hook, 
" in the haze of the New England shore." The state- 
ment that the Great Lake region has never been 
invaded by yellow fever in Winter (sic), and that 
malaria is found only in its denser swamps, hardly 
conveys a correct idea of the sanitary condition of 
that region. 

A naval ^ s a tr ^ ute ^ ^ a ^ respect and 

officer of the admiration, Mrs. Rebecca Paulding 
olden time. Meade's " Life of Hiram Paulding, 

Rear- Admiral, U.S.N." (Baker & Taylor Co.) 
makes a graceful appearance, and also sets forth 
clearly and interestingly the gallant services ren- 
dered to his country by this officer of our old-time 
wooden-built and wind-propelled navy. Those whose 
memories go back to the Civil War will remember 
Paulding as Commandant of the New York Navy 
Yard, where his untiring exertions effected, among 
much else, the timely equipment of the "Monitor," 
then called the " Ericsson," so as to make possible 
its memorable engagement with the " Merrimac." 
Mrs. Meade's book is well illustrated and contains 
frequent extracts from contemporary letters and 
journals. In short, it handsomely meets the ex- 
pectations aroused by the prefatory statement that 
it is "an attempt, on the part of his children, to 
tell to those who care to hear it the story of one of 
our public men, a chivalrous hero of the old days, 
' sans peur et sans reproche,' whose official life is 
interwoven with his country's history, whose home 
life was a rarely beautiful one, and whose example 
is worthy of imitation." 



BRIEFER MENTION. 



The series of brief lives of great Americans known 
as " The Beacon Biographies " (Small, Maynard & Co.) 
has recently been enlarged by two new volumes, one on 
Benjamin Franklin by Mr. Lindsay Swift and one on 
George Washington by Mr. Worthington Chauncey 
Ford. The plan of the series, - - to give a general sum- 
mary of the life, character, and influence of the subject, 
is well carried out in both volumes. 



Dr. Charles W. Super has edited, and Mr. C. W. 
Bardeen has published, a translation of three treatises 
by Plutarch on education " The Education of Boys," 
" How a Young Man Should Hear Lectures on Poetry," 
and " The Right Way to Hear." All of which matter, 
with the accompanying introduction and notes, makes 
up a volume called " Plutarch on Education," which is 
highly instructive, and much sounder in doctrine than 
nine-tenths of the current pedagogical output. 

We do not know how many students of Portuguese 
are to be found in American colleges, but such as there 
are will be glad to have as good an elementary text- 
book as is now provided by Dr. John C. Branner in his 
" Brief Grammar of the Portuguese Language." This 
book is formed upon the best twentieth century models, 
and has a few extracts for reading, besides the neces- 
sary vocabularies. It is published by Messrs. Henry 
Holt & Co., as are also the following texts: "Spanish 
Composition," by Dr. J. P. Wickersham-Crawf ord ; 
Ibafiez's " La Barraca," edited by Mr. Hayward 
Keniston; " Handbook of German Idioms," by Mr. M. 
B. Lambert; and " Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," edited 
by M. M. Le*vi. 

Messrs. Ginn & Co. add to their " Standard English 
Classics " three new volumes : " A Midsummer-Night's 
Dream," edited by Henry N. Hudson; Lodge's " Rosa- 
lynde," edited by Dr. Edward C. Baldwin; and 
Macaulay's " Essays on Clive and Hastings," edited by 
Dr. Charles R. Gaston. The same publishers send us 
an " Introduction to the Study of the Divine Comedy,'' 
by Signor Francesco Flamini, translated by Mr. Freeman 
M. Josselyn. The author seeks to guide wanderers lost 
in " the wild wood of arbitrary interpretations " and to 
provide him with " an organic and simple system of 
general interpretation." Aristotle and Aquinas, he as- 
sures us, are the philosophers who supply the proper 
clue to Dante's thought. 

Two interesting art monographs are found in the 
special Autumn and Winter numbers of " The Interna- 
tional Studio," published by the John Lane Co. The 
first volume, edited by Mr. Charles Holme and entitled 
" Peasant Art in Sweden, Lapland, and Iceland," offers 
illuminating proofs of the fact that Sweden " is some- 
thing more than the dwelling-place of bears ... a 
place where culture was slow to strike root, and where 
its development was retarded by an unpromising soil 
and intellectual night-frosts." Iceland and Lapland 
are treated more briefly, but the six hundred full-page 
illustrations, in color and half-tone, of the peasant cot- 
tages, furniture, wood-carving, metal work, jewelry, 
tapestries, etc., give an adequate idea of the art de- 
velopment of all three countries. The second volume, 
profusely illustrated, and provided with an introductory 
essay by Mr. Malcolm C. Salaman, is devoted to a 
study of old English mezzotints. The lives and works 
of such artists as Prince Rupert, Abraham Blooteling, 
John Simon, Van Bleeck, Richard Houston, Valentine 
Green, John Dean, John Raphael Smith whose cop- 
per plates gave such ideal expression to the charm of 
Romney's art and many others, are treated in detail; 
while in conclusion Mr. Salaman prophesies that " now 
after a long interval of inanition, the beautiful art of 
mezzotint, in the hands of that legitimate heir of the 
great engravers, Mr. Frank Short and his school, 
promises to develop a capacity for original pictorial 
expression unimagined by the old reproductive mezzo- 
tinters." 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



99 



NOTES. 



" The Woman Who Could," a new four-act play by 
Mr. Howard V. Sutherland, will be issued at an early 
date by Desmond Fitz Gerald, Ine. 

Mrs. Humphry Ward is said to be writing a " Robert 
Elsmere " up to date. In the new version she will give 
her view of the present religious situation as contrasted 
with that depicted in " Robert Elsmere." 

Mr. Owen Johnson, author of " The Varmint " and 
other Lawrenceville stories, has already . made con- 
siderable progress upon the second " Varmint " book, 
which will probably be entitled "The Varmint at 
Yale." 

Mr. F. Frankfort Moore, who has done much delight- 
ful work in the field of eighteenth century life and 
letters, has recently completed a Life of Goldsmith, 
which Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co. will issue in this 
country. 

A biography of Victorien Sardou, by Mr. Jerome A. 
Hart, is announced for early publication. Mr. Hart 
has made use of unpublished material dealing with the 
various controversies in which Sardou was continually 
engaged. 

A translation of " Don Quijote," omitting the short 
stories and " some of the poor poetry," has been made 
by Mr. Robinson Smith, and is published in an un- 
adorned but dignified volume of seven hundred pages 
by Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co. 

The first of a noteworthy series of articles by Mr. 
William Winter, on " Shakspere on the Stage " opens 
the February " Century." It describes the individual 
conceptions of the more notable actors who have inter- 
preted the character of Hamlet. 

"The South Atlantic Quarterly " has recently suf- 
fered the destruction by fire of its subscription list. 
Subscribers who will send their names and addresses 
to the editors at Durham, N.C., will receive the Janu- 
ary issue, and will also confer a favor on the business 
manager of the periodical. 

A new novel by the Englishwoman who writes under 
the name of " S. G. Tallentyre " is soon to be published 
in this country by Messrs. Moffat, Yard & Co. with 
the title, " Bassett: A Village Chronicle." Many of the 
London critics have hailed the book as a worthy mod- 
ern successor to "Cranford." 

Versions of " The Great Illusion," which has just 
been published in America, are appearing also in En- 
gland, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Spain, 
Finland, Holland, Italy, Japan, and Sweden. The 
author of the volume, Mr. Norman Angell, has written 
to a Chicago newspaper to avow his American origin. 

A new volume of " Letters of Edward Lear " is 
promised for early publication. The coming volume 
covers the latter portion of Lear's life, and the corre- 
spondence is said to be marked by an under-current of 
seriousness, though there is no lack of the humor and 
paradox in which the author of the " Book of Nonsense " 
always delighted. 

Among the immediately forthcoming publications of 
Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sous are " The Ashes of a 
God," by Mr. F. W. Bain; "Love and Marriage," by 
the Swedish writer, Ellen Key; "Behind the Screens: 
An English Woman's Impressions of Japan," by Evelyn 
Adams; "William the Silent," by Miss Ruth Putnam, 
in the " Heroes of the Nations " series ; and " Neglected 
Factors in Evolution," by Mr. Henry M. Bernard. 



" When Half-gods Go " is the title of a new novel by 
Mrs. Helen R. Martin, author of " Tillie : A Mennonite 
Maid," " The Crossways," etc., which will be published 
by The Century Co. this month. The same firm also 
announces a new novel by Miss Mary Dillon, remem- 
bered for her A Rose of Old St. Louis " and " In Old 
Bellaire." 

The English Poet Laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin, who 
will be Seventy- six next May, has written his reminis- 
cences, and the work will be published in two volumes 
by Messrs. Macmillan during the present season. Mr. 
Austin practised as a barrister for a few years, but it 
is probable that his recollections will be mainly occupied 
with his career as journalist and man of letters. 

The well-known handbook called " Familiar Trees 
and their Leaves," by Mr. F. Schuyler Mathews, will 
appear presently in a new and much enlarged edition. 
The text has been revised throughout, and a supple- 
ment has been added containing information about 
many trees which were not discussed in the earlier 
editions, and also new data about our familiar trees 
which has come to light since the book was written. 

Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer, who, in spite of the many 
books to his credit, is still under forty, will soon issue 
a volume of reminiscences. Mr. Hueffer is a grandson 
of Ford Madox Brown, and during his youth he saw a 
great deal of the chief figures in the pre-Raphaelite 
movement. His recollections give us glimpses of the 
Rossettis, William Morris, Swinburne, and others who 
played a leading part in the development of nineteenth- 
century art and literature. 

Although "The Broad Highway," which Messrs. 
Little, Brown, & Co. publish this month in an Amer- 
ican edition, is, so far as the public is concerned, Mr. 
Jeffery Farnol's first book, he has been writing fiction 
for some eight or nine years past. His brilliant romance 
of eighteenth-century England was written over three 
years ago, and occupied two years in the writing, dur- 
ing part of which time Mr. Farnol was employed in 
scene-painting for the Astor Theatre in New York. He 
was born thirty years ago in Birmingham, England, but 
has lived nearly all his life in Kent. Another story of 
Mr. Faruol's that is to be published shortly is called 
"The Money-Moon"; it was written before "The 
Broad Highway," and, as its title sufficiently suggests, 
is of a much lighter character. He is at present work- 
ing on a new romance dealing again with the days of 
the Prince Regent, and hopes to have it ready for pub- 
lication in the autumn. 



TOPICS IN I/EADING PERIODICALS. 

February. 1911. 



Acting in the Lyric Drama. Mary Garden. Century. 
Adams County, A Lesson from. Albert Shaw. Rev. of Revs. 
American Painting. Francis Lamont Pierce. World To-day. 
American Society in 1787. Mrs. John Van Vorst. Lippincott. 
American Spirit, The. Arthur C. Benson. Atlantic. 
American, The First. Ellsworth Huntingdon. Harper. 
Archaeology. Oric Bates. Atlantic. 

Arctic Prairies, The IV. Ernest Thompson Seton. Scribner. 
Art, The New, in Paris. Marius de Zayas. Forum. 
Art, The Teaching of. John La Farge. Scribner. 
Balloon-Operating in the Civil War. T.S.Lowe. Rev.ofRevt. 
Baltimore. Harrison Rhodes. Harper. 
Bass, Robert Perkins. Isaac F. Marcosson. Munsey. 
Bohemia, A Corner of. William H. Rideing. Bookman. 
Book Advertising, Modern. Algernon Tassin. Bookman. 
Boy Scouting, Aim and Purpose of. F. A. Crosby. World To-day 
Brandeis, Louis D. Ernest Poole. American. 



100 



THE DIAJL 



[Feb. 1, 



Burns, Robert, and Jean Armour. Lyndon Orr. Munsey. 
Camphor: An Industry Revolutionized. R.K.Duncan. Harper. 
Carnegie Peace Fund, The. Paul S. Reinsch. No. American. 
Child Discipline. Elise Morris Underbill. Munsey. 
Chili's Nitrate of Soda Industry. N. O. Winter. World To-day- 
China Awake and at Work. Clarence Poe. Review of Reviews 
Church Statesmanship, Need of. Newman Smyth. No. Amer- 
Cities, Congestion in. Edward H. Brush. Review of Reviews. 
City Garden, Wild Life in a. Herbert R. Sass. Atlantic. 
Clark, Champ, of Missouri. Judson C. Welliver. Munsev. 
Corcoran Biennial Exhibition. Leila Mechlin. Int. Studio. 
Court Presentation. F. Cunliffe-Owen. Munsev. 
Craftsmen, National Society of. J. W. Fosdick. Int. Studio. 
Criminal, Coddling the. Charles C. Nott, Jr. Atlantic. 
Democratic Opportunity, The. Thomas Nelson Page. No. Amer. 
Destitution in Great Britain. Martyn Johnson. World To-day. 
Detmold, E. J., The Drawings of. T. Martin Wood. Int. Studio. 
Disraeli. Benjamin, The Life of . Price Collier. No. American. 
Experiences, My V. Booker T. Washington. World's Work. 
Express Monopoly, The Great. Albert W. Atwood. American. 
Generation, The Rising. Cornelia A. P. Comer. Atlantic. 
German Railway Policy. Elmer Roberts. Scribner. 
Government's Money, Wasting the. H. B. Fuller. World's Work. 
Hallam, Arthur Henry. Francis B. Thwing. North American. 
Homer, Winslow. Arthur Hoeber. World's Work. 
Hospital Angel, The. Louise E. Dew. World To-day. 
House, Reapportionment of the. Frederic A. Ogg. Rev . of Revs. 
Howe, Julia Ward, as a Writer. Jeanne Roberts. Rev. of Revs. 
Human Effort, Conservation of. William Dana Orcutt. Harper. 
Humperdinck's New Opera. Montrose J. Moses. Rev. of Revs. 
Immigrant, The, and the Farm. Nan Mashek. World To-day. 
India. The Gateway to. Price Collier. Scribner. 
Jameson, Alexander, Paintings of. J. B. Manson. Int. Studio. 
Japanese Temples and their Treasures. J. Harada. Int. Studio. 
Journalism as a Career. Charles M. Harger. Int. Studio. 
Lamar, Justice Joseph R. James H. Blount. Rev. of Revs. 
Lee and the Confederate Government. G. Bradford, Jr. Atlantic. 
Lee, General, as I Knew Him. A. R. H. Hanson. Harper. 
Life beyond Life. Beulah B. Ainram. Atlantic. 
Lincoln in Myth and in Fact. Dorothy Teillard. World's Work. 
Lincoln, Side-Lights on. Jesse Weik, and others. Century. 
Lincoln, The Poetry of. James R. Perry. North American. 
Liquor Traffic, Voting down the. F. C. Iglehart. Rev. of Revs. 
Literary History. Brander Matthews. North American. 
Luther, Martin, and his Work III. A. C. McGiffert. Century. 
" Macleod, Fiona," Mystery of. Richard Le Gallienne. Forum. 
Manchuria, America in. Frederick McConnick. Century. 
Meredith in French Eyes. George Middleton. Bookman. 
Moving-Picture Show, The. Asa Steele. World's Work. 
Napoleonana.Phelps Collection of. Mary Ricker. World To-day. 
New York Harbor. Walter Prichard Eaton. Scribner. 
Orkney Islands, The. Maude Radford Warren. Harper. 
Panama Canal, Fortification of the. H. A. Austin, forum. 
Patent Office, Stories of the. Catharine Cavanagh. Bookman. 
Pension Carnival, The V. William B. Hale. World's Work. 
Phillips, David Graham. Calvin Winter. Bookman. 
Polygamy, Mormon Revival of. Burton J. Hendrick. McClure. 
Post-Office, The. Don C. Seitz. World's Work. 
Potash Industry, The. Arthur B. Reeves. Review of Reviews. 
Princeton's Proposed Graduate College. A. F. West. Century. 
Problem of 1911, The. William Allen White. American. 
Property-Tax, The. Albert Jay Nock. American. 
Public Service Corporation Bond. J. S. Gregory. Munsey. 
Railroads and Politics, Divorce of. Isaac F. Marcosson. Munsey. 
Railway Problems and Rates. F. A. Delano. World To-day. 
Reed, Thomas Brackett. Henry Cabot Lodge. Century. 
Reporter, The Case of the. Hugo Miinsterberg. McClure. 
School Teacher, Choosing a. William McAndrew. World's Work. 
" Scientific Management." Arthur W. Page. World's Work. 
Sculpture, Recent. W. Reynolds-Stephens. Int. Studio. 
Secretary of State. Meaning of. Frederick McCormick.No.Amer. 
Shakspere on the Stage I. William Winter. Century . 
Sierra, My First Summer in the II. John Muir. Atlantic. 
Sierras, Conquering the. Benjamin Brooks. Scribner. 
Taft, An Appeal to. Wayne MacVeagh. North American. 
Tolstoy, The Religion of . Louise Collier Willcox. No. Amer. 
Tolstoy, The Message of. Archibald Henderson. Forum. 
Trusts, German and British. Gilbert H. Montague. Atlantic. 
United States Army, The. H. L. Clotworthy. World's Work. 
University, The, and Amer. Humour. Brian Hooker. Bookman- 
Watson. William, The Poetry of. Harold Williams. Atlantic. 
Wild Animals, Critical Moments with. Ellin Velvin. McClure. 
Woman in Profile. Marion Cox. Forum, 
Women and Wealth. J. Laurence Laughlin. Scribner. 
Women Laundresses. Sue Clark and Edith Wyatt. McClure. 
Woodbury, Charles H. Arthur Hoeber. International Studio. 
Y. M. C. A., Development of the. E. A. Halsey. World To-day. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 90 titles, includes books 
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. 

Two Russian Reformers : Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy. 
By J. A. T. Lloyd. Illustrated, large 8vo, 334 pages. John 
Lane Co. $3.50 net. 

Margaret Fuller and Goethe : The Development of a Re- 
markable Personality. By Frederick Augustus Braun. 
12mo, 271 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.35 net. 

William Blake. By G. K. Chesterton. Illustrated, 16mo, 210 
pages. "Popular Library of Art." E. P. Dutton & Co. 
75 cts. net. 

William Morris. By J. W. Mackail. 8vo, 29 pages. Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. Paper, 30 cts. net. 

HISTORY. 

A History of the United States and its People, from 
their Earliest Records to the Present Time. By Elroy 
McKendree A very. Volume VII., illustrated in color, etc., 
8vo, 452 pages. Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co. 

Essays in American History: Dedicated to Frederick 
Jackson Turner. 8vo, 293 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.50 net 

Historical and Political Essays. By William Edward 
Hartpole Lecky. New edition; 12mo, 296 pages. Long- 
mans, Green, & Co. $1.60 net. 

GENERAL, LITERATURE. 
Famous Speeches. Edited by Herbert Paul. Large 8vo, 456 

pages. Little, Brown, & Co. $3. net. 
Blake's Version of the Book of Job : A Study. By Joseph 

H. Wicksteed. Illustrated in photogravure, 8vo, 168 pages. 

E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net. 

NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE. 

Miscellaneous Prose. By George Meredith. Memorial 
Edition; with photogravure frontispiece, 8vo, 213 pages. 
Charles Scribner's Sons. (Sold only in sets by subscrip- 
tion.) 

Oxford Library of Prose and Poetry. New volumes: 
Shelley's Prometheus Bound, and Other Poems; Poems of 
Clough, edited by H. S. Milford. Each 12mo. Oxford Uni- 
versity Press. 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. With 
introductions by Algernon Charles Swinburne and Edward 
Dowden. Volumes I., II., and III. With frontispiece por- 
traits, 16mo. "World's Classics." Oxford University 
Press. 

Poems by the Way. By William Morris. 16mo, 236 pages. 
"Longmans' Pocket Library." Longmans, Green, & Co. 
75 cts. net. 

The Poems of Sir Philip Sidney. Edited, with introduc- 
tion, by John Drinkwater. 16mo, 320 pages. " The Muses 
Library." E. P. Dutton & Co. 50 cts. 

Oxford Moment Series. New volumes: Tennyson's In 
Memoriam; John Brown's Rab and his Friends; Words- 
worth's Poems. With portraits in color, 32mo. Oxford 
University Press. 

BOOKS OF VERSE. 

The Moonlight Sonata, and Other Verses. By M. A. B. 

Evans. 12mo, 172 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net. 
JEneas, and Other Verses and Versions, By D. A. Slater. 

12mo, 59 pages. Oxford University Press. Paper. 
A Book of Light Verse. Edited by R. M. Leonard. With 

frontispiece, 12mo, 448 pages. Oxford University Press. 

75 cts. net ; also on Oxford India paper, $1.75 net. 
A Son of Cain. By James A. Mackereth. 12mo, 145 pages. 

Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.25 net. 
Baldur the Beautiful. By Grace Denio Litchfield. 16mo, 

72 pages. G. P. Putnam Sons. $1. net. 

Asphodel. By Mary J. Serrano, 16mo, 63 pages. Knicker- 
bocker Press. 
The Poems of Annie Hawthorne (Eliza Ann Horton). 

Edited by E. Jay Hanford. With portrait, 8vo, 219 pages. 

Grafton Press. 
The Death of Maid McCrea. By O. C. Auringer. I2mo, 66 

pages. Richard G. Badger. 
Adventures. By Fanny Hodges Newman. 8vo, 75 pages 

Chula Vista, Cal. : Denrich Press. $1. 
Winnowings of the Wind. By Walter Flavins McCaleb. 

12mo, 76 pages. Privately printed. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



101 



The Angrel of Death. By Johan Olof WalUn ; translated by 
Clement B. Shaw. Illustrated. 8vo, 39 pages. Chicago: 
Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Co. 

FICTION. 
Howards End. By E. M. Forster. 12mo. 422 pages. O. P. 

Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net. 
A Cossack Lover. By Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi. 

12mo, 363 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.30 net. 
Master and Maid. By Mrs. L. Allen Barker. 12mo, 315 pages. 

Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.25 net. 
Patsy. By. H. de Vere Stacpoole. 12mo, 342 pages. Dnffield 

& Co. $1.20 net. 
The Trail of '98: A Northand Romance. By Robert W. Service. 

Illustrated, I2mo. 514 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.30 net. 
One Way Out: A Middle-Class New-Englander Emigrates to 

America. By William Carleton. 12mo, 303 pages. Small, 

Maynard & Co. $1.20 net. 
Tillers of the Soil. By J. . Patterson. I2mo. 364 pages. 

Duffield A Co. $1.30 net. 
The Phantom of the Opera. By Gaston Leroux. Illlustrated 

in color, 12mo, 357 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.25 net. 
The White Peacock. By D. H. Laurence. I2mo, 496 pages. 

Duffield & Co. $1.30 net. 

To the Highest Bidder. By Florence Morse Kingsley. Illus- 
trated. 12mo, 302 pages. Dodd. Mead & Co. $1.20 net. 
The Lever. By William Dana Orcutt. Illustrated, 12mo, 

319 pages. Harper & Brothers. $1.50. 
Sir George's Objection. By Mrs. W. K. Clifford. 12mo, 395 

pages. Duffield & Co. $1.20 net. 
My Lady of Arcs. By John Brandane. With frontispiece in 

color, 12mo, 313 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.20 net. 
Colonel Todhunter of Missouri. By Ripley D. Saunders. 

Illustrated. 12mo, 327 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50. 
Maradick at Forty: A Transition. Ry Hugh Walpole. 12mo, 

304 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.20 net. 
Barker's: A Chronicle. By E. H. Lacon Watson. 12mo, 343 

pages. London: John Murray. 
Young Life. By Jessie Leckie Herbertson. I2mo, 304 pages. 

Duffield & Co. $1.20 net. 
When Cattle Kingdom FelL By J. R. Stafford. 12mo, 374 

pages. B. W. Dodge & Co. $1.25 net. 
The Romance of a Monk. By Alrx King. I2mo. 299 pages. 

New York : The Metropolitan Press. $1.20 net. 
The Feet of the Years. By John Calson Hyde. 12mo, 298 

pages. New York: The Metropolitan Press. $1.25 net. 
Faith-Hope: Child of the Slams. By D. R. C. Svo, 300 

pages. New York : G. O. Tubly. 

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. 

An Eastern Voyage : A Journal of Travels through the Brit- 
ish Empire, in the East, and Japan. By Count Fritz von 
Hochberg. In 2 volumes, illustrated in color, etc., large 
Svo. E. P. Dutton & Co. $10. net. 

The Cradle of the Deep : An Account of a Voyage to the 
West Indies. By Sir Frederick Treves. Illustrated in color, 
etc.. Svo, 378 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net. 

Winter Wanderings : An Account of Travels in Abyssinia, 
Samoa, Java. Japan, and Other Interesting Countries. By 
A. Per Lee Pease. Illustrated, 12mo, 386 pages. Cochrane 
Publishing Co. $1.50 net. 

Across Three Oceans : A Woman's Tour of the World. By 
Annie Louise Miller. Svo, 192 pages. Lincoln, Nebraska : 
State Journal Co. 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 
The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military 

Power in Nations to their Economic and Social Advantage. 

By Norman Angell. Svo, 388 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

$1.50 net. 
The Modern Criminal Science Series. First volumes: 

Modern Theories of Criminality, by C. Bernald de Quiros, 

$4. net: Criminal Psychology, by Hans Gross, $5. net. 

Each large Svo. Little. Brown, & Co. 
Thirty-Five Years in the Divorce Court. By Henry Edwin 

Fenn. Illustrated, large Svo, 309 pages. Little, Brown, & 

Co. $3.50 net. 

Industrial Accidents and their Compensation. By Gil- 
bert Lewis Campbell. 16mo, 105 pages. "Hart, Schaffner 

and Marx Prize Essays in Economics." Houghton Mifflin 

Co. $1. net. 
A Short History of Women's Rights from the Days of 

Augustus to the Present Time. By Eugene A. Hecker. 

12mo. 292 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50 net. 



Income Taxation : Methods and Results in Various Countries. 
By Kossuth Kent Kennan. Large Svo, 345 pages. Milwaukee. 
Wis.: Burdick & Allen. 

Defrauding the Government. By William H. Theobald. 
With portrait, 12mo, 508 pages. New York : Myrtle Publish- 
ing Co. 

From Freedom to Despotism: A Rational Prediction and 
Forewarning. By Charles M. Hollingsworth. 12mo, 238 
pages. Washington. D. C. Privately printed. $1.50 net. 

, *" PHILOSOPHY. 

Philosophical Essays. By Bert rand Russell. Svo, 185 pages. 
Longmans, Green, & Co. $2. net. 

Individualism: Four Lectures on the Significance of Con- 
sciousness for Social Relations. By Warner Fite. Svo, 
301 pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.80 net. 

RELIGION. 

The Prayer before the Passion ; or, Our Lord's Intercession 
for his People. By Rev. James 8. Stone. 12mo, 263 pages. 
Longmans, Green. & Co. $1.50 net. 

The Messages of the Poets: The Books of Job and 
Canticles, and Some Minor Poems in the Old Testament. 
By Nathaniel Schmidt. I6mo. 415 pages. " Messages of 
the Bible." Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.25 net. 

EDUCATION. 

Huxley and Education: Address at the Opening of the Col- 
lege Year, Columbia University, 1910. By Henry Fairfield 

Osborn. I6mo. 45 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
German Style: An Introduction to the Study of German Prose. 

By Ludwig Lewisohn. 12mo. 215 pages. Henry Holt & Co. 
Wider Use of the School Plant. By Clarence Arthur Perry ; 

with introduction by Luther Halsey Gnlick. Illustrated, 

Svo, 423 pages. Charities Publication Committee. $1.25 net. 
A Guide for Laboratory and Field Studies in Botany. By 

William Gould. Second edition; Svo. Philadelphia: P. 

Blakiston's Son & Co. Paper. 
Longman's Historical Illustrations of England in the 

Middle Ages. Drawn and described by T. C. Barfield. 

Portofolios V. and VI., large Svo. Longmans, Green, &, Co. 

Each 90 cts. net. 
Plutarch on Education. By Charles William Super. 16mo, 

192 pages. Syracuse, N.Y. : C. W. Bardeen. 
Beitrage zur Byzantinlschen Kulturgeschichte. By Rev. 

J. Milton Vance. Svo. 82 pages. Jena: Universitatsbnch- 

druckerei G. Neuenhahn. 
Textiles for Commercial, Industrial, Evening, and Domestic 

Arts Schools. By William H. Dooley. Illustrated, I2mo, 

221 pages. D. C. Heath & Co. 
Industrial Studies: United States. By Nellie B. Allen. 

12mo. 334 pages. Ginn & Co. 65 cts. net. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

The Pianoforte and its Music. By Henry Edward Krehbiel. 
Illustrated, 12mo, 314 pages. " The Music Lover's Library." 
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.25 net. 

The Photography of Moving: Objects and Hand-Camera 
Work for Advanced Workers. By Adolphe Abrahams. Illus- 
trated, 12mo. 153 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. 60 cts. net. 

Around the Clock with the Rounder. Recklessly Recorded 
by Lewis Allen. Illustrated in color, 12mo. John W. Luce 
&Co. 75 cts. 

SPECIALIST IN 
Railroad, Canal, and Financial Literature 

Large stock of books and pamphlets on these subjects. 

DIXIE BOOK SHOP, 41 Liberty St, New York 



Catalogue of Americana 



Sent Free on Application 

Lexington Book Shop 



102 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



LIBRARIANS 

Depend on THE DIAL in 
Making up Orders for Books 

BELOW ARE A FEW EXTRACTS FROM A 
LARGE NUMBER OF LETTERS RECEIVED 
FROM PRACTICAL AND EXPERIENCED LIBRA- 
RIANS IN ALL PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. 



" I have come to feel a confidence in THE DIAL'S 

reviews that I have with those of no other periodical. 

I always carefully read THE DIAL, and pay particular 

attention to the advertisements also." M. G. Wyer, 

Librarian State University of Iowa, Iowa City, la. 

" THE DIAL is of real help in deciding what books 
to purchase." W. I. Fletcher, 

Librarian Amherst (Mass.) College Library. 

"We consider THE DIAL the most reliable of all 
the literary journals published in this country." 

John C. Dana, 
Librarian Free Public Library, Newark, N. J. 

"We would not think of trying to run a library 
without THE DIAL." Edwina Whitney, 
Librarian Connecticut Agricultural Library, 
Storrs, Conn. 

"We consider THE DIAL quite indispensable in 
our library, and find it an excellent aid in the selection 
of books." Esther E. Burdick, 

Librarian Jersey City (N. J) Free Public Library. 

"THE DIAL aids me more in book selection than 
any other periodical." Asa Don Dickinson, 

Librarian Leaven worth (Kas.) Public Library. 

" THE DIAL stands with us as one of the necessities 
in our work." Arlena M. Chapin, 

Librarian Muncie (Ind.) Public Library. 

"I find THE DIAL of the greatest use, and consider 
it by far the best literary periodical in this country." 

Richard Bliss, 
Librarian Redwood Library, Newport, R. I. 

"THE DIAL is a periodical which I always try to 
find time to read from cover to cover." 

Grace W. Harris, 
Librarian Carnegie Free Library, Ogden, Utah. 



"In the matter of book selection, THE DIAL is 
indispensable." Louise M. Fernald, 

Librarian Rochester (Minn.) Library. 

"I rely on the book reviews in THE DIAL'S columns 
as I do not on any other publication, and it is my habit 
to consult its classified lists before making out a list of 
books desired for this library." Nellie S. Loving, 

Librarian Ann Arbor (Mich.) Library. 



Book Advertising 

in THE DIAL 

Reaches Librarians 



JUST PUBLISHED 



INCOME TAXATION 

By KOSSUTH KENT KENNAN 

A review of the methods and results of taxing incomes 
in the Colonies and States of the American Union and 
in a large number of foreign countries. Contains a 
full account of the Civil War Income Tax, the Income 
Tax Law of 1894, the Corporation Tax Law and the 
proposed Sixteenth Amendment. 
Full Buckram, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top, 8vo, 

Price net $3.50 

Express or Post, prepaid (boxed) 3.75 

BURDICK & ALLEN, Publishers, MILWAUKEE, WIS. 



Etched Portraits 

By JACQUES REICH 
FAMOUS AMERICANS 



WASHINGTON MADISON 



JEFFERSON 

HAMILTON 

FRANKLIN 

WEBSTER 

JACKSON 



PAUL JONES 
JOHN MARSHALL 
LINCOLN 
GEORGE WILLIAM 

CURTIS 
Plates 14 x 18 inches. 



SERIES OF AUTHORS 

TENNYSON HOLMES THACKERAY C 

BRYANT WHITTIER MEREDITH <| 

LOWELL MRS. STOWE DICKENS S 

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 

Plate i3Xxi8^. 

Arrangements for private plates may be made by mail. 
Send for descriptive Price List. 

105 W. 40th Street 
NEW YORK CITY 



Our Bargain Catalogs 

ARE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION 



A customer -writes: " Please quote me prices ; I find it 
costly not to have communicated with you before 
purchasing." 

"A Catalog of Reference Books offered from 25 to 60 

per cent. Discount. ' ' 

A Catalog of Boohs Relating to American History. 
A Catalog of Art Books. 
A Catalog of Standard Sets. 

ONE OB ALL MAILED ON BEQUEST 
Quotations Made on Special Items on Request 



The H. R. Huntting Co. 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



103 



ALL OUT-OP- PRINT BOOKS SUPPLIED, 

no nutter on what subject. Writ* us. We can gel 
you any book ever published. Please state wants. Catalogue free. 

BAKER'S GREAT BOOK SHOP, 14-16 Bright St., BnuraeHA*, EHO. 



New and Second-hand Books 

:QX 

Comparative Religion and Mysticism 

Catalogues free on application. 

JOHN M. WATKINS 

21 Cecil Court Charing Cross Rd. LONDON, W. C. 



LUZAC & CO. 

46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET : : LONDON. W.C. 

MAKE A SPECIALTY OF 

ORIENTAL LITERATURE, RELIGION, ETC. 

Catalogue! issued periodically of new and second-band books 
which are sent gratis on application! 



[From the Philadelphia yorth American, Jan. 21, 1911.] 

"RUNNING STORY o/SOCIALISM" 

"AX able review and forecast of what President Taft hag called ' the 
-*- next great issue before the American people ' is N'ewton Mann's 
'IMPORT AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM, 1 from the press of the 
James H. West Company, Publishers, of Boston. 

In this work the author sketches rapidly the rise and interna- 
tional course of Socialism, beginning with the Utopian Communism of 
the early nineteenth century, and reaching now to a stage and view- 
point from which social transformation of the world appears dimly on 
the horizon of possibilities. 

" There is little of the earlier method of Socialistic propaganda!* 
in Mr. Mann's book, which is probably the beat and fairest presenta- 
tion of the claims of the proletariat that has been made in print by an 
American writer. World events render obsolete the old form of invec- 
tive, denunciation, and passionate appeal. Mr. Mann employs liber- 
ally inductive processes of reasoning; and his basic data, drawn from 
administrative and economic practice in many lands, are curiously 
suggestive sometimes almost startling." 

[The North American here quotes from the book a con- 
siderable series of examples, then continuing :] 

" As a friendly survey of a momentous social and economic move- 
ment, written without prejudice and with clear understanding of 
present-day exigencies and conditions, Mr. Mann's work is interesting 
and instructive. It names names, and gives dates and places, instead 
of ranting furiously or darkening understanding." 

Cloth, 336 pp., $1.50 net, postage 12 cent* 
[Special circular, \cith Content*, etc., on application."] 

JAMES H. WEST CO. PUBLISHERS BOSTON 

P. M. HOLLY 

Authors' and Publishers' Representative 
Circulars sent upon request. 156 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK. 

MISS N. E. WEEKS 

STENOGRAPHY and TYPEWRITING 

Literary and Dramatic Work a Specialty. Preparation 

of Book* for New Edition*. Revision of Manatcript*. 

Tel. Kenwood 203 504 East 43d Street. Chicago 



FOR SALE 

THE DIAL, VOLUMES I. to XXV. 
1880-1898, bound in dark brown cloth. In 
perfect condition. These volumes include 
all early numbers, many of which are now 
out-of-print and not obtainable elsewhere. 

PRICE ON APPLICATION 
THE DIAL COMPANY, 203 Michigan Avenue, CHICAGO 



THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

Wholesale Dealers in the Books of all Publishers 
33-37 EAST 17th Street, NEW YORK 

. LIBRARY ORDERS 
FILLED PROMPTLY 



We have hundreds of satisfied customers in all parts of 
the United States. In addition to our large stock of 
the books of all publishers, we have unexcelled facil- 
ities for securing promptly books not in stock and 
making shipments complete. Oar import department 
is thoroughly equipped. Save delay by ordering from 
New York City the publishing center of the country- 



IDYLLS OF GREECE 8SVEKS 

Second Series AN EXQUISITE GIFT BOOK 

DESMOND FITZGEKALD. 186 5th Ave., New York 



THE STUDY- GUIDE SERIES 

Place Davidson's Stlld.y of Four Idylls (College 
entrance requirement) in the hands of your pupils and 
watch the result of carefully planned, constructive study. 
Class price, 15 cts. each. Send for full list of Study-Guides 

to H. A. DAVIDSON, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



FOR BOOKS hard to find, and for 
ANY BOOKS, recent or old 



WRITE TO 



E. W. Johnson, Dealer in New and Old Books 

121 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 



Send for New Catalogue 
of Good Book* 



GOOD BOOKS 

Purchased 




>Y<3)UBLJSHlNGHi 



pUBUSHERS MANUFACTURERS 
/LSD DEALERS 



45.47.49 John St *stt3BEEii. 

SEND FO R LIST OF 

OCCULT. MASONIC AND KINDRED BOOKS 



LIBRARIANS 



CLEARANCE LIST 



of Reference Works and Standard Sets. Just issued. 

UNUSUAL BARGAINS 
THEO. E. SCHULTE. Bookseller. 123 E. 23d St.. New York 

INDIAN WARS OF NEW ENGLAND 

By HERBERT M. SYLVESTER 

Of the Boston Par 
A complete, chronologically correct relation of the most 

important period in New England history. 
" The most important historical work of the present year." 

Springfield Republican. 

S volumes, octavo. $15. 00 net. Expressage extra. 

Descriptive circular and reviews sent on request. 

W. B. CLARKE CO., BOSTON, MASS. 



104 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION 

Established in 1880. LETTERS OP CRITICISM , EXPERT 
REVISION OF MSS. Advice as to publication. Addresj 
DR. TITUS M. COAN. 70 FIFTH AVE.. NEW YORK CITY 



The next great issue before the American people. President Taft. 
IMPORT AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM 

By NEWTON MANN 

Author of " The Evolution of a Great Literature." 
"Mr. Mann is an author of large mental grasp and unusual judicial 
balance. He comes to the subject without prejudice, and presents it 
in scholarly yet simple terms." Zion's Herald. " Probably the fair- 
est, most candid, most deliberate attempt available to find the ethical 
import of this movement." JKNKIN LLOYD JONES, Ph.D., Chicago. 
" If we had to learn of historic, contemporary, and prophetic Social- 
ism through one book only, we know of none other which so clearly or 
attractively presents it. " Boston Common. 

Cloth, 336 pp., $1.50 net, postage 12 cents. 

JAMES H. WEST CO. PUBLISHERS BOSTON 

The Players of London 

A Romance of Elizabethan Days 

By LOUISE BEECHER CHANCELLOR 

(Mrs. William Estabrook Chancellor.) 

" We have read ' Players ' at home aloud in the family circle 
with the greatest pleasure. It is a delightful story and inter- 
ests all." ADDISON B. POLAND, Ph.D., City Superintendent 
of Schools, Newark, N. J. 

Drawings and decorations by Harry B. Matthews 

Printed in two colors. Boxed, $1.75. 

B. W. DODGE & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

43 WEST 27th STREET, NEW YORK 



TT 




advertised or 
mentioned in 
this issue mazj 



hadjrorru 

mROWKE'S 
DOOKSTORE 

The Fine Arts 'Building 
'Mithic/an'Blvd., Chicago 



ICE 



Stories soldon strictl .y 

. commission basis. No 
advance fee for selling. Revision and typewriting done 
at reasonable charges. We operate under the direction of 
one of America's successful authors, and with the written 
approval of leading publishers. Mail MSS. to-day. 
LITERARY BUREAU, 810 Stephen Girard Building, Philadelphia 

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BOUGHT FOR GASH 

II AVE you any old letters, manuscripts, or documents of the 
n Presidents of the United States, Signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, Revolutionary Generals, or Celebrated Authors, 
Poets, or Statesmen, English or American ? I will pay you CASH 
for them. Write me at once or send letters to me for inspection. A 
safe and immediate return guaranteed if my offer is not accepted . 

P. F. MADIGAN, 1 East 45th Street, NEW YORK 



AUTHORS 

wishing manuscripts placed without reading fee, address 

La TOUGHE HANCOCK, 1 34 W, 37th St., New York City 



A PRIVATE gentleman forming a Col- 
lection of Autograph Letters of cele- 
brated personages, desires correspondence 
with those who may have such letters and 
.will dispose of them. Dealers will not reply. 
Good prices paid for good specimens. 

HENRI BORNOT 

9th FLOOR, 28 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK CITY 




THE ISLANDS OF TITICACA AND KOATI. By 

ADOLPF F. BANDELIER. Octavo, pp. xvii.-359. 
With numerous illustrations and full index. Red buck- 
ram, with gilt top. Price, $5.00. 

EL ROMANCERO ESPANOL. By RAMON MENEN- 
DEZ PIDAL. Octavo, pp. 133. Lectures on the origin 
and transmission of early Spanish ballads. Price, $1.25. 

CELESTINA. Facsimile of the unique original and first 
known editions of 1499. Price, $3.00 net. 

THE POEM OF THE CID. Popular edition. Text, 
Translation, and Notes. 3 volumes. Price, each, $1.00. 

BIBLJOGRAPHIE HISPANIQUE. 1905, 1906, 1907. 

Ready in February. 

For Catalogue of Publications and additional 
information address 



The Hispanic Society of America 

156th Street, west of Broadway, New York 



1911.] 



THE DIAJL 



105 



A INE'W CREATION 

The Most' Remarkable 
Single .Volume Ever 
Published.'^ 



Journal of Education 
Boston 



m 



WEBSTER'S 

NEW 

INTERNATIONAL! 



A necessity to every business 
and professional man, indis- 
pensable to the student, and 
a constant source of education and interest to all members of the home. 

HERE ARE SOME OF ITS SALIENT FEATURES:, 

NEW. The only new unabridged dictionary in many years. 

HIGHEST SCHOLARSHIP. The result of seven years labor by many eminent 

specialists. Editor in Chief, Dr. W. T. Harris, former U. 8. Com. of Education. 
HOST USAKLE. The only dictionary with the New Divided Page. A "Stroke 

of Genius," sayw the Chicago Record-Herald. 
MORE "WORDS and PHRASES DEFINED (400,000) than ever appeared before 

between two covers. 

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA in a single volume. 2700 PAGES. Type matter equiva- 
lent to a 15 volume set. Many full-page plates. Eight in colon. 
SYNONYMS more fully, clearly, and carefully treated than ever before in Tnn e iiyh, 
600O ILLUSTRATIONS of defining value. 

MnCTTANICAT. WORK a triumph of the bookmakers' art. Strong and artistic. 
TRUSTWORTHY. The latest production of publishers who for 67 years have 

been making authoritative dictionaries. Cost of this Kew Creation $400,000. 
TO WIN SUCCESS you must keep posted on that which is Kew. Post yourself on the 
New International, the one supreme authority for all who use the TflngHafr language. 
WRITE for full particulars and pamphlet showing the new divided page, i llustrations, etc. Mention 
this periodical and we will send FREE useful set of Pocket Maps giving the United ft-""- 
States, Panama Canal, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Etc. , 4*^ 

G. & C. MERRIAM CO., Springfield, Mass., U. S. A. ,/ Name. 



ONE, 
BOOK 

containing the 
PITH aid ES- 
SENCE of aa 
authoritative 
library. 4 It 
covers every 
field of knowl- 
edge in eluding 
Agriculture' 
Abbreviations 
Architecture 
Art 

Astronomy 
Bacteriology 
Botany 
Chemistry 
Christian 

Name* 
Economics 
Electricity 
Fiction 
Foreign 

Phrases 
Forestry 
Geology 
Golf 

Heraldry 
Law 

Mathematics 
Mechanics 
Medicine 
Meteorology 
Military 

Term* 
Mineralogy 
Mining 
Marie 
Mythology 
Nautical and 

Naval Terms 
Philippine Is- 
land Words 
Philosophy 
Physics 
Religions 

Terms 
Scripture 

Name* 
Synonyms 
Zoology 
Biology 
Geography 
Words nsed 
in Trades _ 

- '**" 
send pages 

of the New 
International. 
, Include FBEB 
r MAPS as I s.vyaag 
*>dvt. in Tl 



Address.. 



$2.00 per year 



THE MONIST 



Single copy, 6O cts. 



A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE :: DEVOTED TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 

Established in 1890 by E. C. Hegeler. 

CONTENTS FOR JANUARY, 1911 

Schopenhauer's Types of Idealism By William Mclntyre Salter 

Professor Ernest Mach and his Work By Paul Cams 

Early Attacks on Christianity and its Defenders . By Bernhard Pick 

From Protagoras to William James By John E. Boodin 

Criticisms and Discussions, etc. 

An index covering seventeen years of THE MONIST will be sent to any interested reader desiring to become acquainted 

with the work and the standing of its contributors. 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO., 237 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO 



106 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 



THE FINEST EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE 
NOW OFFERED ON UNPRECEDENTED TERMS 



>TpHE STRATFORD TOWN SHAKESPEARE, ranking with the finest of editions de 
luxe, was printed at the Shakespeare Head Press at Stratford, which was especially 
established, under the direction of Mr. A. H. Bullen, to do honor to Shakespeare's 
memory by printing a worthy edition of his works in his native town. It is the only 
complete edition of Shakespeare's Works ever printed and published in his native 
town, and so will have for all time an interest and distinction placing it entirely apart 
from any other existing or future edition of Shakespeare. 



The 
Format 



Editorial 
Features 



Press 
Opinions 



The set comprises ten royal octavo volumes. One thousand numbered sets, on English hand- 
made paper, have been printed, of which two hundred and fifty are for America. Each vol- 
ume contains a photogravure frontispiece, eight being portraits of Shakespeare, one of Richard 
Burbage, the chief actor of Shakespeare's time, and one of the Earl of Southampton, Shake- 
speare's patron, to whom his Sonnets are supposed to have been dedicated. The type is the 
original Old Face type cut by William Caslon in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
For the text is used the size known as " English," the songs, etc., being printed in small 
pica. The lines are numbered at the side. An English hand-made paper, with Shakespeare's 
crest and coat-of-arms for a water-mark, has been specially manufactured for this edition. 

The edition has been carefully produced under the supervision of Mr. A. H. Bullen, whose 
scholarly researches in the field of Elizabethan Literature have peculiarly qualified him for the 
task. A unique feature is the elimination of the great mass of notes which usually clog the 
pages of our great classic and impede the reader. Instead, the last volume contains new and 
original essays which supply in a comprehensive and readable form all the information that the 
student or private reader requires for the proper appreciation of the great dramatist. These 
essays are as follows : A Memoir of Shakespeare, by Henry Davey, F. G. S.; Ben Jonson's 
Views on Shakespeare's Art, by J. J. Jusserand; On the Influence of the Audience, by 
Robert Bridges, M.A.; The Religion of Shakespeare, by Rev. H. C. Beeching, M.A.; The 
Stage of the Globe, by E. K. Chambers; The Portraits of Shakespeare, by M. H. Spielmann; 
The Sonnets, by Rev. H. C. Beeching ; Notes on the Text, by A. H. Bullen. 

The BOOKMAN (London): "The most beautiful and most desirable of all the library edi- 
tions of the works of Shakespeare. We can pay it no higher compliment than to express our 
opinion that it justifies its right to bear the imprint of Stratford-on-Avon." 

The ATHEN^UM : " The type is of luxurious size, set up on a page between eleven and 
twelve inches in height, and shows up with delightful clearness against the ample margin; and 
the whole is excellently bound, while it bears signs of being able to stand wear better than 
some elaborate editions of good repute." 



Of the Stratford Town Shakespeare 250 sets only were printed for American 
subscribers, the published price being $75. net. Through a fortunate purchase 
we are able to offer a very limited number of sets at $36., payable in twelve 
monthly instalments of $3. each. To ensure securing a set of this splendid 
edition on these unprecedented terms, an immediate application should be made. 



'BROWNE'S "BOOKSTORE, 203 Michigan Blvd., CHICAGO 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



107 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

LIBRARY AGENTS 



NEW YORK: 

27 and 29 West 23d St. 



LONDON: 

24 Bedford St., Strand 



OUPPLYING PUBLIC LIBRARIES was one of the special features of the Putnam House 
^ when established by the founder in 1841. Particular attention has been given by the Manage- 
ment since then to this branch of the business and it has greatly increased. We offer facilities 
possessed by no other house for thorough, efficient, intelligent, and economical service. Our 
branch house in London gives us peculiar advantages in this connection. On our list of regular 
customers are numerous public and college libraries throughout the country. 

Fifteen years ago, the United States Naval Equipment Bureau began to place libraries on each 
vessel in the Navy. Every battleship and cruiser to-day has admirably selected libraries comprising 
general literature as well as technical books, for both officers and crew. 

The contracts for supplying these libraries are awarded by strict competitive bids. It speaks 
well for the efficiency of our Library Department that the libraries of at least 85 per cent of 
the vessels come from Putnams. 

We are always ready to make competitive offers for library contracts, when the conditions are 
such that fair competition is really practicable. 

CORRESPONDENCE INVITED 



SEND YOUK "WANTS" TO 

WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 

Publishers, Booksellers, Stationers, Printers 
851-853 SIXTH AVE. (Cor. 48th St.), NEW YORK 


ALL BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 


Including 

FRENCH 

SPANISH. ITALIAN, 
GERMAN AND OTHER 
FOREIGN 

BOOKS 


Including 

MEDICAL 

books and works concerning 
HORSES, CATTLE, DOGS 

and other Domestic 
Animals 


Special facilities for supplying Schools, Colleges and 
Libraries. Catalogues on Application. 



Library Department 

LEMCKE & BUECHNER 

32 West 27th Street 
NEW YORK 

Direct importations from all parts of the world 
at lower rates than foreign agents can make. 

American Books at Bottom Prices 

Agents for the Columbia University Press Publi- 
cations (formerly handled by the Macmillan Co.) 



>f 3Jntere0t to 



The books advertised and reviewed in this 
magazine can be purchased from us at 
advantageous prices by 

public Hiliraries, t>cl)ools, 
Colleges, anti Universities 

In addition to these books we have an excep- 
tionally large stock of the books of all pub- 
lishers a more complete assortment than 
can be found on the shelves of any other 
bookstore in the United States. We solicit 
orders and correspondence from libraries. 

LIBRARY DEPARTMENT 

A. C. McCLURG & CO. 

CHICAGO 



108 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 1, 1911. 



A CHECK LIST 



Leading New Books for Libraries Published During 1910 



HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 



BLAND, J. O. P., and BACKHOUSE, EDMUND 
China Under the Empress Dowager 
Illustrated. Large 8vo. Cloth, $4.00 net. 

DURET, THEODORE 

Manet and the French Impressionists 
Illustrated. Small 4to. Cloth, $3.75 net. 

MICHEL, EMILE 

Great Masters of Landscape Painting 
Illustrated. Quarto. Cloth, $7.50 net. 

VON SEIDLITZ, W. History of Japanese Color' 



MOORE, J. B. 

Works of James Buchanan 

Vols. X. and XI. 8vo. Cloth, per vol., $5.00 net. 
SICHEL, W. 

Sterne: A Study 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $2.50 net. 
SLADEN, DOUGLAS 

Secrets of the Vatican New popular edition. 

Illustrated. Royal 8vo. Cloth, $2.50 net. 
Prints Illustrated. Large crown 4to. Cloth, $6.50 net. 



ALLDRIDGE, T. J. 

A Tranformed Colony : Sierra Leone 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50 net. 
CRAN, MRS. GEORGE 

A Woman in Canada 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.00 net. 
DE WINDT, H. 

Through Savage Europe 

New edition. Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50 net. 
STIGAND, CAPTAIN C. H. 

To Abyssinia through an Unknown Land 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50 net. 



COMFORT, WILL LEVINGTON 
Routledge Rides Alone 

Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
DEJEANS, ELIZABETH 

The Heart of Desire 

Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
DEVEREUX, WM. and LOVELL, S. 

Raleigh Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
KNAPP, GEORGE L. 

The Scales of Justice 

Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 



BANGS, JOHN KENDRICK 

Mollie and the Unwisemen Abroad 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 
DASENT, SIR GEO. WEBBE 

Norse Fairy Tales 

Illustrated. Large square 8vo. Cloth, $1.75. 
INGELOW, JEAN 

Mopsa, the Fairy Iilus. I2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
MACLEAN, J. K. 

Heroes of the Polar Seas 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 
MITTON, G. E. 

The Swiss Family Robinson 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 



TRAVEL 

FURNESS, WILLIAM H., 3rd. 
Island of Stone Money 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50 net. 

GRIMSHAW, BEATRICE 

The New New Guinea 
Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50 net. 

SLADEN, DOUGLAS 

Queer Things about Egypt 
Illustrated. Large 8vo. Cloth, $5.00 net. 

SWANN, A. J. 

Fighting the Slave Hunters in Central 
Africa Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $3.50 net. 

FICTION 

KORTRECHT, AUGUSTA 

A Dixie Rose 

Frontispiece. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
POTTER DAVID 

The Lady of the Spur 

Frontispiece. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
SCOTT, JOHN REED 

The Impostor Illus. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
STEVENSON, B. E. 

The Path of Honor 

Hj Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

JUVENILE 

MANY HANDS 

Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy 
Can Do 

Illustrations and Diagrams. Cr. 8vo. Cloth, $2. net 
DAVIDSON, N. J. (Editor.) 

A Knight Errant and His Doughty 
Deeds: The Story of Amadis of Gaul 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.75. 
" OUIDA " 

Bimbi: Stories for Children 

Illustrated. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 
WICKS, M. 

Mars via the Moon 

Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



BROADBENT, F. 

Chats on Electricity Illus.l2mo.Clo.$1.25 net. 

FRIPP, A. D., and THOMPSON, R. 

Human Anatomy for Art Students 
Illustrated. Square crown 8 vo. Cloth, $1.75 net. 

MAcPHERSON, JR., H. 

The Romance of Modern Astronomy 
Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50 net. 

RIDGEWAY, ROBERT 

Manual of North American Birds 
Fourth edition. Illus. Large 8vo. Cloth, $5. net. 



REXFORD, EBEN E. 

Indoor Gardening Illus. Cr. 8vo. Clo. $1.50 net. 
SCHMUCKER, S. C. 

Under the Open Sky Illus. 8vo. Clo. $1.50 net. 
SOLOMON, S. J. 

The Practice of Oil Painting and of 
Drawing as Associated with it 

Illustrated. Square crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.75 net. 
TOFT, ALBERT 

Modelling and Sculpture 

Illustrated. Square crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.75 net. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PUBLISHERS 



PHILADELPHIA 



THE DIAL PRESS, FINE ARTS BUILDING, CHICAGO 



THE DIAL 



Jl SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

Criiinsm, gismssion, anfr 



EDITED BY "1 Volume L. 

FRANCIS F. BROWNE / -Vo. 592. 



CHICAGO, FEB. 16, 1911. 



10 ct*. a copv. / Fi*re ABTS BCILDISG 
#. a year. \ 203 Michigan Blvd. 



SCRIBNER SPRING PUBLICATIONS 


C&e 90u0ic obrt'0 iUbran? 


&TS flflna: tsprctrs SgtHe 


7n ^?rc volumes, each illustrated, 12mo. $135 net. 

JUST PUBLISHED 
FIFTH AND FINAL VOLUME 

The Pianoforte and Its 
Music 

By H. E. KREHBIEL, author of " How to Listen 
to Music," etc. 

" The book is an excellent one, and will prove in- 
dispensable in rendering more accessible know- 
ledge of a very important subject." Prof. V. R. 
SPALDING, Division of Music, Harvard University. 

" One of the most valuable contributions which 
have been made in recent years to the library of 
the English-speaking music lover." N. Y. Sun. 

$125 net. Postpaid $1.35. 
OTHER VOLUMES IN THE SERIES 

The Opera Past and Present 

By WILLIAM APTHORP, author of " Musicians 
and Music Lovers." 

Choirs and Choral Music 

By ARTHUR MEES, Conductor of the New 
York Mendelssohn Glee Club. 

Songs and Song Writers 

By HENRY T. FIXCK, author of " Wagner and 
His Works." 

The Orchestra and Orchestral 
Music 

By W. J. HENDERSON V , author of "The 
Art of the Singer." ^ 


A New Universal and International Series of 
Art Manual* 

500 illustrations, 4 in color, in each volume. 
" A splendid series. The importance of these 
books is indicated by the fact that they will be 
published in five languages Italian French, 
Spanish, English, and German." Chicago Record- 
Herald. 
JUST PUBLISHED 

The Art of Northern Italy 

By CORRADO RICCI 
A compact, clear account of all kinds of art in 
Northern Italy from earliest times down to the 
present, their development and influence upon 
each other. $1 50 net. Postpaid $1.65. 

ALREADY PUBLISHED 

Art in Great Britain and Ireland 

By SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG 
With over 500 illustrations, 4 in color. 
" He has done an amazing good piece of work, re- 
viewing all the minor arts in his brief space as 
well as architecture, painting, and sculpture." 
New York Sun. Postpaid $1.65 $1.50 net. 


Huxley and Education 

By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, Da Costa 
Professor of Zoology in Columbia University. 
A cogent essay advancing a new scheme of 
education. 
"In his booklet on 'Huxley and Education,'" 
says John Graham Brooks, author and lecturer, 
" Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn has spoken a 
noble illuminating word. Like William James 
he has none of the timidities of the pedant. He 
has no fear of things racy or homespun. The 
supreme end of education is the outgiving 
^^v energy." 50 cents net. Postpaid 55 cents. 
^Z& 


IRiSy 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS FIFTH AVENUE, NEW" YORK 



110 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



THE FINEST EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE 
NOW OFFERED ON UNPRECEDENTED TERMS 



STRATFORD TOWN SHAKESPEARE, ranking with the finest of editions de 
luxe, was printed at the Shakespeare Head Press at Stratford, which was especially 
established, under the direction of Mr. A. H. Bullen, to do honor to Shakespeare's 
memory by printing a worthy edition of his works in his native town. It is the only 
complete edition of Shakespeare's Works ever printed and published in his native 
town, and so will have for all time an interest and distinction placing it entirely apart 
from any other existing or future edition of Shakespeare. 



The 
Format 



Editorial 
Features 



Press 
Opinions 



The set comprises ten royal octavo volumes. One thousand numbered sets, on English hand- 
made paper, have been printed, of which two hundred and fifty are for America. Each vol- 
ume contains a photogravure frontispiece, eight being portraits of Shakespeare, one of Richard 
Burbage, the chief actor of Shakespeare's time, and one of the Earl of Southampton, Shake- 
speare's patron, to whom his Sonnets are supposed to have been dedicated. The type is the 
original Old Face type cut by William Caslon in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
For the text is used the size known as " English," the songs, etc., being printed in small 
pica. The lines are numbered at the side. An English hand-made paper, with Shakespeare's 
crest and coat-of-arms for a water-mark, has been specially manufactured for this edition. 

The edition has been carefully produced under the supervision of Mr. A. H. Bullen, whose 
scholarly researches in the field of Elizabethan Literature have peculiarly qualified him for the 
task. A unique feature is the elimination of the great mass of notes which usually clog the 
pages of our great classic and impede the reader. Instead, the last volume contains new and 
original essays which supply in a comprehensive and readable form all the information that the 
student or private reader requires for the proper appreciation of the great dramatist. These 
essays are as follows : A Memoir of Shakespeare, by Henry Davey, F. G. S.; Ben Jonson's 
Views on Shakespeare's Art, by J. J. Jusserand; On the Influence of the Audience, by 
Robert Bridges, M.A.; The Religion of Shakespeare, by Rev. H. C. Beeching, M.A.; The 
Stage of the Globe, by E. K. Chambers; The Portraits of Shakespeare, by M. H. Spielmann; 
The Sonnets, by Rev. H. C. Beeching ; Notes on the Text, by A. H. Bullen. 

The BOOKMAN (London): " The most beautiful and most desirable of all the library edi- 
tions of the works of Shakespeare. We can pay it no higher compliment than to express out 
opinion that it justifies its right to bear the imprint of Stratford-on-Avon." 

The ATHEN^UM : " The type is of luxurious size, set up on a page between eleven and 
twelve inches in height, and shows up with delightful clearness against the ample margin; and 
the whole is excellently bound, while it bears signs of being able to stand wear better than 
some elaborate editions of good repute." 



Of the Stratford Town Shakespeare 250 sets only were printed for American 
subscribers, the published price being $75. net. Through a fortunate purchase 
we are able to offer a very limited number of sets at $36., payable in twelve 
monthly instalments of $3. each. To ensure securing a set of this splendid 
edition on these unprecedented terms, an immediate application should be made. 



'BROWNE'S "BOOKSTORE, 203 Michigan Blvd., CHICAGO 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



ill 



" The Novel of a Decade " London Graphic 

The Broad Highway 

By JEFFERY FARNOL 

The remarkable success of this romance in England will undoubtedly 
be duplicated in this country for a fourth large American Edition was 
required in advance of publication. No novel calculated to give so 
much delight has been issued in many years. Standing out from the 
characters are Peter, the hero, "The Ancient," " Black George," the 
blacksmith, and Charmian, the elusive heroine, whom the reader will 
not soon forget. 

A Splendid Tribute 

London Daily Telegraph "An enchanting book. A series of incidents as swift as 
any of the romances of DUMAS." 

The Bookman (London) "As fresh and individual as ' The Cloister and the Hearth' 
(CHARLES READE) or 'The White Company' (CONAN DOYLE). 'The 
Broad Highway ' is a virile, a breezily masculine and wholly interesting romance ; it 
has a rich and original vein of humor, a healthy, philosophical outlook, and is not only 
a new novel, but something new in novels, and as good as it is new." 

Clement Shorter in the Sphere (London) "I have discovered a writer of striking 
merit Mr. Jeffery Farnol. 'The Broad Highway' is the breeziest romance I have 
read for a long time." 

London Evening Standard " ' The Broad Highway ' is a direct descendant of Gil Bias 
(LE SAGE) and Lavengro (BORROW) . . . DUMAS himself :was no fonder of 
a 'scrap* than Mr. Farnol." 

Pall Mall Gazette (London) " He leaves the open road now and then for a gay lay 
sermon in the FIELDING manner ; and he treats us to a succession of country tav- 
erns, a la SMOLLETT." 

The Sportsman (London) " It is more fascinating and even more human than ' Lorna 
Doone'" (BLACKMORE). 

Literary World (London) "It has all the freshness and originality of first books with the 
sureness of touch, coherence of ideas, and breadth of view found only in mature writers." 

532 pages. Decorated cloth. $1.35 net. By mail $1.46. 

Other Early 1911 Fiction 



THE GOLDEN WEB 

By Anthony Partridge 

An engrossing mystery story. Fully illustrated. 

$1.50. 

HOW LESLIE LOVED 

By Anne Warner 

The season's sprightliest romance. Illustrated 

in color by JPenzell. $1.25 net. 

ALJSE OF ASTRA 

A romance of love, intrigue, and adventure. 
Illustrated. $i .50 . 



THE GIFT OF THE GRASS 

By John Trotwood Moore 

A novel of Tennessee life. Illustrated in color. 



BERENICE 

By E. Phillips Oppenheim 

A real love story, this time. Frontispiece in 

color by Christy. $1.25 net. 

A WOMAN WITH A PURPOSE 

By Anna Chapin Ray 

A story of married life. Frontispiece. $1.25 net. 



LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY 



PUBLISHERS 



BOSTON 



112 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 1911. 









. Important New Macmillan Books 








Second printing of the nenv, greatly 


By the author of " Essays on Modern 




enlarged edition 


Novelists ' ' 






The American Commonwealth 


Essays on the Russian Novelists 






By JAMES BRYCE 


By WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, Ph.D. 






So thoroughly revised to date that it is more than 


Professor of English Literature, Yale University. 






ever worthy of the description given it by The 


Cloth. $1.50 net; by mail $1.60. 






Evening Post "a, political and social survey of 


ALLEN FRENCH'S new book 






incomparable excellence." 
Two 8vo vols. $6.00 net, carriage extra. 


The Siege of Boston 








A new and interesting volume in the series "Stories 






The Promise of American Life 


from American History." 
Cloth, illus., $1.50 net; by mail $1.62. 






By HERBERT CROLY 








"The most profound and illuminating study of our 


CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS'S new book 






national conditions which has appeared for many 


Neighbors Unknown 






years." Theodore Roosevelt. 


By the author of "The Heart of the Ancient Wood," 






There is a peculiar interest by the way in reading 


" The Kindred of the Wild," etc. 






the keen analyses from this American point of view. 


Illustrated, cloth. $1.50. 






just when the Englishman's classic survey has been 
freshly brought to mind. 
Cloth, 8vo. $2.00 net; by mail $2. lit. 


JACK LONDON'S new book 

When God Laughs 








By the author of " Burning Daylight," "The Call of 






Social Adjustment 


the Wild," etc. Cloth, illus., $1.50. 






By SCOTT NEARING, Wharton School. Univer- 


HAMILTON DRUMMOND'S new novel 






sity of Pennsylvania. 
An inspiring book compact, clear, and to the point. 


The Justice of the King 






$1.50 net; by mail $1.61. 


Quaint and tender, and at the same time alive with 








swift adventure. $1.20 net; by mail $1.31. 






The Training of Teachers for Sec- 








ondary Schools in Germany and the 


Before you run away from March 'winds read 






United States 


Miss I. A. WRIGHT'S Cuba 






By JOHN FRANKLIN BROWN 


It opens the possibility of getting away, in even a 






Author of " The American High School." 


fortnight's leave, into an atmosphere as foreign and 






Cloth, $1.25 net. 


colorful as that of Spain itself. 








Cloth, illus., $2.50 net; by mail $2.69. 






Unitarian Thought 








By Professor EPHRAIM EMERTON 


Enlarge your boys' horizons through 






Harvard University. $1.50 net; bv mail $1.61. 


Mrs. FIGYELMESSY'S delightful juvenile 






New Testament Theology 


Two Boys in the Tropics 

It is refreshingly written and opens a world of new 






By Professor HENRY C. SHELDON 


surroundings, among the animals, games, and un- 






Boston University. $1.50 net; by mail $1.62. 


familiar occurrences of British Guiana. 








Cloth. $1.35 net; by mail $1.48. 






The Basal Beliefs of Christianity 


Another capital book for the travel shelf 






By Dr. JAMES H. SNOWDEN, D.D.. LL.D. 


CLIFTON JOHNSON'S 






Author of " The World a Spiritual System." 
$1.50 net; by mail $1.62. 


Highways and Byways of 






The Building of the Church 


the Rocky Mountains 

A new volume in the pleasant series of " Highways 






By CHARLES E. JEFFERSON 


and Byways in America." Capital books to read 






Pastor of The Broadway Tabernacle, New York City. 


aloud, interestingly illustrated by the author's cam- 






$1.26 net; by mail $1,55. 


era. Cloth. $2. 00 net; by mail $2. 20. 






The Cyclopedia of Education r t:;'T 






Edited by PAUL MONROE, Ph.D., Professor of the History of Education, Teachers Training College, 






Columbia University. 






For almost any other Cyclopedia you may find something at least approaching an equivalent another 






cyclopedia, or a carefully selected shelf of text-books on special subjects. But the materials on which this 






work has been based have never before been systematised. It is unique and indispensable. 










PUBLISHED THE MACMILLAN COMPANY "*%?' 





THE DIAL 

21 SemisfHontijlg Journal of SLiterarg Criticism, Discussion, anfc Information. 



THE DIAL (founded in 1880) it published on Ike lit and 16th oj 
each month. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION, 82. a year in advance, pottage 
prepaid in the United States, and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian 
pottage 50 cent* per year extra. KEMTTAXCES should be by check, or 
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY. 
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current 
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub- 
scription is received, it is assu med that a continuance of the subscription 
is desired. ADYKBTISISO RATES furnished on application. All com- 
munications should be addressed to 

THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. 

Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 592. 



FEBRUARY 16, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



COXTEXTS. 



MISGUIDED POETS 



PAGE 
. 113 



CASUAL COMMENT 115 

The duties of the New Theatre. Insect book-lovers. 

A forced interpretation of Lincoln. The death 
of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. A polygrapher 
extraordinary. The prospective sale of the Huth 
library. The special librarian's qualifications. 
The public library as a profitable investment. The 
haunting associations of a word. Sir Francis Gal- 
ton. The centenary of the Academia della Crusca. 

Richard Wagner's forthcoming autobiography. 
John Lockwood Kipling. 

COMMUNICATIONS 118 

Mr. Shaw's Attitude toward Shakespeare. Mar- 
garet Vance. 

The Pleasures of Serious Reading. Anne Warner. 

The " Thirteen Original Situations " and " Eleven 

Ancestral Witticisms." Daniel Edwards Kennedy. 

AN EARLY VICTORIAN ROMANCER. Clark S. 

Northup 119 

THE ANCIENTS ILLUMINATED. Grant Showerman 121 
LYRIC IRELAND. Louis James Block 122 

THE LATEST STUDY OF MOLIERE IN ENG- 
LISH. F. C. L. van Steenderen 125 

AN IMPRESSIONIST IN SPAIN. George G. Brownell 127 
VEGETARIAN BIOLOGY. Raymond Pearl ... 128 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS . 129 

A near view of a great inventor at his work. 
Tnrgenev and Tolstoy compared and contrasted. 
A handbook on Japan. Reminiscences of a noted 
prima donna. An English magistrate in Northern 
China. The makers of California. Mr. Lang and 
the Homeric controversy. Reminiscences of Lin- 
coln by his law-partner. Amusing foolery in small 
fragments. 



NOTES 



132 



MISGUIDED POETS. 



LIST OF NEW BOOKS .133 



The* amiable gentleman who organized the 
Congresses of the Columbian Exposition, and 
who presided over their sessions, included among 
his duties that of opening the proceedings of 
each new Congress with an introductory address. 
Being a gentleman of much learning and versa- 
tility, his opening remarks were usually appro- 
priate and felicitous. But on one occasion he 
went distinctly wrong. When the Congress of 
Authors convened for the first time, he felt that 
the gathering called for an unusual effort, and 
his friends were a little aghast when they de- 
tected a semblance of rhythm in what he was 
saying, and soon found their suspicions con- 
firmed by the discovery that they were listening 
to an address in blank verse. No mere prose 
would serve for such an occasion and audience 
as this, and the presiding officer was not the 
man to shirk an obvious obligation. So the 
assembled authors were addressed (fortunately 
at no great length) in what was supposed to be 
their own tongue, and endured the ordeal with 
a degree of well-bred composure that effectively 
concealed their real feelings. " Gute Leute 
aber schlechte Musikanten " was Goethe's de- 
scription of the class of people to which the 
speaker belonged ; misguided poets we have 
thought to call them, although there is an 
element of question-begging in the phrase. 

The number of people who think that they 
can write poetry if they wish, and with easy 
assurance " toss off " a pedestrian effusion (often 
ornamented with bad rhymes) when some occa- 
sion seems to call for it, is a large one ; and the 
number is unduly swollen by the easy-going 
character of the average American company, 
ready to bestow equal applause upon thought 
and inanity, and to weigh the intention rather 
than the performance, provided only the inten- 
tion be to flatter or to please. The sort of com- 
position in spurious verse to which we refer is 
alarmingly prevalent at banquets, and in 
women's clubs, and upon ceremonial occasions 
generally, when the whole proceedings are of 
a nature to induce a condition of hebetude in 
those present, and when the critical faculty is 
by tacit consent held in abeyance. The victims 
of the misguided poet are apt to have dulled 
senses at such times, the result of too much 
eating and drinking, possibly, or of the toxins 



114 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



developed in the system by too many statistics or 
too much oratory. There are things for which 
even a bad poem will offer a kind of relief, 
and the relief is too frequently forthcoming. 

It sometimes happens that the ready versifier 
occupies a position, or possesses an influence, 
that makes the raising of objections, or the 
indulgence in anything but warm expressions 
of simulated delight, a delicate if not a danger- 
ous matter. We think of Nero and Richelieu 
and the German Emperor as historical examples. 
An instance at once modern and American is 
supplied by the circular letter of remonstrance 
that was recently sent from Panama to the 
Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
Representatives at Washington. It seems that 
the Governor of the Canal Zone is one of those 
persons who indulge in poetical propensities at 
the expense of their entourage, and his per- 
formances have become more than sensitive 
souls can bear, especially in a tropical climate. 
" It is not," says the letter, " that we who are 
helping to dig the canal have any objection to 
real poetry. But Governor Thatcher's poetry 
has corns on every foot, despite which he feels 
it his duty to board incoming steamships and 
read a rhymed address to the most distinguished 
visitor on board. He did this in the case of 
the late President Montt of Chile. Something 
should be done at once by those in authority 
at Washington." The accompanying exhibit 
enables us to share in the disturbed sensibilities 
of the remonstrants. 

" Who are loyal, strong, and brave ? 

The Chileans, sir ! 
Who are masters of the wave ? 

The Chileans, sir! 

Who laugh at danger and the grave ? 
Who gladly die their land to save ? 
Who rule where mighty waters lave ? 

The Chileans, sir ! " 

It must be admitted that here is a grievance. 
The immediate victim of this assault may have 
escaped unscathed because of his blissful ignor- 
ance of the English language, but our heart 
goes out to the unfortunate Americans who 
were compelled to stand by and listen. This 
Macedonian cry closes with an appeal that k ' all 
in authority read these effusions, understand 
our position, appreciate our difficulties, and 
give us relief. We do not ask for the Governor's 
removal. He is a well-meaning man, although 
misguided. But we do demand that he stick to 
prose, keep out of the moonlight, and not inflict 
verses on his helpless subordinates." 

History has a way of repeating itself, and 
the disclosure of the conditions above described 



recalls a similar instance which we have long 
cherished. There was once a schoolmaster in 
Dundee whose poetic offerings upon public 
affairs were of such a nature as to evoke a 
vigorous protest. His verses have not, to our 
knowledge, been preserved, but they were bad 
enough to occasion the following entry, dated 
1745, in the town archives : 

" The Council authorize the Theasaurer to give to Mr. 
Lawder, one of the Masters of the Latine School of this 
Burrow, Two Guineas for his pains and Charges in 
making some poyms upon the Town of Dundie, which 
are now hung up in the Town House; but at same 
time intimate to him not to make any more of those 
poyms without the Magistrates' approbation." 

This seems to cover the case very completely, and 
to afford a precedent for our own official action. 
May it not be suggested that this judgment, in 
the absence of any statutory provision fitting 
the case, should be considered a part of the 
common law, and applied for the relief of the 
oppressed Panamanians? Our self-appointed 
Poets Laureate, wherever they may raise their 
voices under the a3gis of political station, should 
be gently but firmly taken in hand by some 
kind of authority. 

In the class of misguided poets we must 
include many for whose activities the public 
shares the responsibility, not merely by reason 
of its excess of good nature, but by reason of its 
uncritical approval of productions that belong 
upon the rubbish-heap. We have been speaking 
only of effusions that are taken seriously by 
none save their authors, of " freak" poetry that 
reveals to the least discriminating readers its 
own halting gait and manifest absurdity. But 
there is a great deal of bad verse that owes its 
existence to the applause of people who are 
ignorant of the very meaning of the word 
" poetry," but whose ears are tickled by any 
kind of a jingle, and whose feelings are stimu- 
lated by any kind of mushy sentimentality. 
There is no more important task for the mis- 
sionary work of criticism than that of laboring 
with those strata of the uneducated in which 
brummagem is thought to be precious metal, 
and the counterfeit coin passes undetected. 
For bad poetry of the sort that finds warm ad- 
mirers has always existed, and always will ; the 
task of Mrs. Partington with her broom was not 
more discouraging than is that of the preacher 
of the gospel of pure literature in this unregen- 
erate world. But the task must not be shirked, 
despite its hopelessness, and here and there the 
rescue of a soul from the mire of vulgar im- 
agery and false sentiment will be accomplished, 
giving the worker an ample sense of reward. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



115 



CASUAL COMMENT. 



THE DUTIES OF THE NEW THEATRE were the 
subject of caustic comment by Sir Henry Arthur 
Jones, in a lecture recently delivered at Columbia 
University. The English playwright, inspired by 
the presence in the audience of ten of the founders 
of the enterprise, spoke somewhat at length on the 
unescapable responsibility resting upon the great 
playhouse of " fostering a school of American 
drama," of " bringing about an alliance between lit- 
erature and the drama in America." Performances 
of classic plays, revivals of interesting works of the 
last generation, the encouragement, by occasional 
presentation, of plays of literary and artistic merit, 
but without the power to capture immediate popular 
attention, these are all objects subsidiary to the 
first great one, which alone can justify an institution 
with the national scope of the New Theatre. And 
it is a grave question where the worthy plays are to 
come from, and why the New Theatre, more than 
any purely commercial enterprise, may expect to 
bring them forth. This criticism is especially in- 
teresting in view of the theatre's recent production of 
"The Piper," surely an example of the sort of play 
that the lecturer had in mind. The American pro- 
duction is to the honor of the New Theatre; although, 
as Mrs. Marks, who still writes as Josephine Preston 
Peabody, laughingly said in an interview, they 
were n't "dreadfully keen " to have it until after its 
English success. " There had been plenty of time 
after it was published in book form and before 
the English prize-winner was announced, for any 
enthusiasm, if it was really felt, to be manifested on 
this side, and none was apparent." Mrs. Marks, in 
the course of rehearsals, found the American actor's 
inability to catch the rhythm of poetry very " har- 
rowing "; and she shares the opinion of many New 
York critics that the Piper's part has not been wisely 
cast, though she speaks most appreciatively of the 
wonderful artistry displayed by Miss Matthison in 
the role. 



INSECT BOOK-LOVERS, including paste-eaters, 
binding-devourers, and paper-gluttons (divided into 
those that prefer wood-pulp, those that feast on 
other vegetable fibres, and those that hunger after 
mineral fillers), are far more numerous than is com- 
monly believed. The insects destructive of bindings 
alone may be subdivided into those whose taste is 
for morocco, those that delight in vellum, those 
whose preference leans toward calfskin, those with 
a plebeian fondness for the plain wood that covers 
some volumes, and so on. Mr. William R. Reinick, 
custodian of public documents at the Free Library 
of Philadelphia, has been for several years hot on 
the track of these illiterate devotees of literature, 
and has not only published a highly informing and 
useful treatise on " Insects Destructive to Books " 
(in " The American Journal of Pharmacy " for 
December, 1910, and reprinted in separate form), 
but hopes to give out before long some later and 



fuller information on the same subject. As to 
methods of destroying these pests, he says in con- 
cluding his treatise : *' Cleanliness in the handling 
of papers, books, and documents will be of more 
value than all the poisons combined. Let common- 
sense prevail, make sanitary rules in the home and 
in the Dublic library an enforced rule, and it will 
lessen and arrest the rapid growth of the little in-> 
sects which feed upon our silent friends of so much 
value to us, besides eliminating the possibilities of 
contagious diseases." Rather startling, if true, is 
the statement that " more books and papers are de- 
stroyed by small forms of life in one year than by 
fire and water combined." On the whole, it seems 
safe to say of the oft-mentioned but seldom-seen 
book-worm, that its name is legion, and its variety 
innumerable. But, fortunately, we of northern lati- 
tudes are comparatively immune from its ravages. 



A FORCED INTERPRETATION OF LINCOLN, the 

writer and speaker of dignified and sonorous Eng- 
lish, is contributed to " The North American Re- 
view " for February by Mr James Raymond Perry, 
who has convinced himself, and wishes to convince 
his readers, that Lincoln's prose is in reality poetry 
in disguise. To this end, he cuts up into lines, 
arbitrarily enough many times, a number of pas- 
sages from Lincoln's writings, presenting them thus 
in a certain Walt Whitman dress which does bear 
some visible resemblance to poetry. The Gettys- 
burg address indeed rises to the dignity and im- 
pressiveness of an elegiac poem, but not even this 
eloquent utterance admits of being divided into lines 
metrically faultless, or even approximately faultless. 
And when the attempt is made, as Mr. Perry cour- 
ageously makes it, to versify the " First Inaugural," 
the result is, to say the least, not convincing. Who, 
without a pet theory to prove, would ever discern 
much of real poetry in the opening of that address? 
"I take the official oath to-day with no mental 
reservation, and with no purpose to construe the 
Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. 
And while I do not choose now to specify particular 
acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do 
suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in 
official and private stations, to conform to and abide 
by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to 
violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in 
having them held to be unconstitutional." Let the 
reader try to cut this into verse-lengths, and then 
see how nearly, or how distantly, his division agrees 
with Mr. Perry's. If Lincoln was a poet, then every 
writer of good rhythmical prose and all good 
prose is rhythmical is likewise a poet 



THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS 
WARD, on the 29th of January, came unexpectedly, 
her illness having been but a short one. Ever since 
the age of thirteen she had been writing for publica- 
tion, and her earliest book, "The Gates Ajar," which 
appeared in 1868, when she was but twenty-four 
years old, immediately won for her a host of read- 



116 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



ers, their numbers rather increasing than diminish- 
ing as she followed up this remarkable success with 
novels not always so strikingly original, but always 
inspired with intensity of conviction and loftiness 
of moral purpose. "The list of her books is a long 
one, and need not here be given even in part. 
Hardly a year passed, during her productive period, 
that did not see a new book, sometimes more than 
one, from her pen ; and they always maintained the 
same high ethical and religious level, impressing 
their lessons indeed with some straining of incident, 
some undue shrillness in the note struck, and some- 
thing that was occasionally out of drawing in the 
characters delineated. But this daughter of the 
gifted Andover professor of " sacred rhetoric " was 
always true to her New England traditions, and 
her work is not unworthy of comparison with the 
best of the good old New England school to which 
she properly belonged. Her biography of her father, 
Austin Phelps, teacher at the Andover Theological 
Seminary, and for ten years the executive head of 
that institution, should not be overlooked in any 
review of her writings ; nor should her fame as 
novelist wholly obscure her talent as a writer of 
verse. Her death at the comparatively early age of 
sixty-six will cause deep and lasting regret to the 
many who found solace and cheer in her books. 

A POLTGRAPHER EXTRAORDINARY, who IS a Very 

Roosevelt or William II. for mingled versatility, 
impetuosity, impatience of opposition, and sublime 
self-assurance, now makes a bid for the world's 
attention in books that have been translated from 
their original French into English, German, Span- 
ish, Italian, Danish, Russian, Hungarian, and even 
Esperanto. Dr. Gustave Le Bon, whose latest book 
is entitled "La Psychologie Politique et la Defense 
Sociale," has written also on so many other subjects 
that it would be easier to name the branches of 
learning left untouched by him than to enumerate 
those with which he has concerned himself. If one 
is to believe his friends and admirers, he possesses 
a sort of intuitive knowledge of all science. His 
u Evolution of Matter " is hailed by one reviewer 
as the most startling pronouncement in science since 
Newton's " Principia," and his " Psychology of 
Education " is declared by another to have already 
influenced a large part of the educational world. 
We used to take justifiable pride in the scope of 
Professor Shaler's studies and writings ; he could 
apparently with equal ease compose an epic poem 
and write a textbook on geology ; but if all the 
things we hear of Dr. Le Bon are true, Shaler's 
readiness as an encyclopaedic writer was not worthy 
of comparison with this extraordinary Frenchman's. 


THE PROSPECTIVE SALE OF THE HUTH LIBRARY, 

one of the last of the famous collections of books got 
together by English bibliophiles, will disperse some 
literary treasures of unequaled value. Alfred Henry 
Huth, of Fosbury Manor near Hungerford, succeeded 
in 1878 to the ownership of the splendid library 



that his father, Henry Huth, had spent a quarter of 
a century or more and one hundred and twenty 
thousand pounds in forming. The death of the son 
last year seems to have left the library practically 
without an owner, or at least without one interested 
in preserving intact this rare collection, and the 
executors of the estate are about to place the library 
in the hands of Messrs. Sotheby for auction sale. 
Among the treasures of the collection are several 
fifteenth-century Bibles, notably the Mazarin for 
which Henry Huth paid nearly three thousand 
pounds, and the Faust and Schoffer which cost him 
considerably less, but is hardly less interesting to 
the book-lover. A good number of Caxtons, in- 
cluding " The Game and Playe of Chesse " and the 
" Speculum Vitae Christi," and the four Shakespeare 
folios, with some of the rarest quartos, are named, 
as well as many other first or early editions of Eng- 
lish classics. The joy in the bosom of collectors 
at the release of all these treasures, many of which 
will be scrambled for at fabulous prices, and the 
inevitable bitterness in the heart of unsuccessful 
bidders, are matters passing the power of pen to 
deal with adequately. 



THE SPECIAL LIBRARIAN'S QUALIFICATIONS, or, 
in other words, the equipment necessary for the 
management of a special library, must always in- 
clude a good general knowledge of library science 
built upon a broad basis of general education. The 
24th annual report of the New York State Library 
School closes with some remarks on " Training for 
Special Library Work," and maintains that "the 
ideal combination is a technical training in some 
branch or related branches, a broad general educa- 
tion, and library training or experience." The 
special library is coming into more and more promi- 
nence in the business and industrial world, and in 
the arts and sciences, thus affording new openings 
for our library school graduates. In regard to these 
newly created positions, which are sure to become 
more numerous as time passes, the writer already 
quoted says : " Though opportunities in special 
libraries (other than in cataloguing or clerical posi- 
tions) seem better at present for men than for 
women, there is a growing demand for both men 
and women of suitable personality, education, and 
training. From its practical character and its direct 
contact with men and industries, the special library 
should be a particularly attractive field for the 
young man of scientific or professional training to 
whom the bookish side of his profession appeals 
more strongly than its field work or its office 
routine." ... 

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS A PROFITABLE INVEST- 
MENT was the subject of a recent notable address 
from Mr. Hiller C. Wellman, librarian of the 
Springfield (Mass.) City Library, before the local 
Publicity Club. A surprising array of facts was 
placed before the audience to prove the money 
value of the library to the community ; not that this 
is its chief value, but, as the speaker took occasion 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



117 



to explain, " it is just because the primary purpose 
of a library is not commercial that I suspect we are 
apt to overlook the actual cash dividends which a 
library yields. The library of to-day studies the 
industrial life of the community and endeavors to 
supply the books that will aid every trade and 
every calling that exist in the city. It is eager to 
meet every demand, but it goes further : it en- 
deavors to create the demand. It advertises ; it 
uses every legitimate means of making its resources 
known. As advertising men, you may be interested 
to know that at least three per cent of the library's 
expenditure is used directly or indirectly to further 
this sort of advertising. The result has been an 
increase in the extent and variety and scope of the 
services rendered that few people have any idea of." 
To refer to a single one of these profitable activities, 
by furnishing the numerous foreigners of its com- 
munity with elementary text-books from which to 
acquire a knowledge of their adopted language, the 
Springfield library has helped many of them to 
secure and retain paying positions, besides helping 
to make them good English-speaking citizens. 



THE HAUNTING ASSOCIATIONS OF A WORD will 

never be explained by any analysis of its sound- 
elements or any tracing of its etymology. Mr. F. M. 
Wells writes in the London " Book Monthly " on 
u Why Some English Sounds are a Delight to the 
Ear," adducing a number of words that have especial 
charm or significance to him and quoting aptly an 
unnamed critic's commendation of Pater, Stevenson, 
and Laf adio Hearn as producing literature " in which 
form and matter are essentially one . . . besides ful- 
ness, beauty and melody of sound. Words are so used 
as to summon to the mind a deeper, a more psychic or, 
if you will, spiritual feeling than the primary thought 
which the language superficially conveys." Every 
man can instance words that from his early child- 
hood have possessed for him unaccountable power 
and beauty. To the present writer the word " fairy " 
was one of the earliest of these magic words. Another 
word, which turned out to be no word at all, had 
acquired a peculiar and satisfying significance 
until, on first hearing it pronounced after having 
only a literary acquaintance with it, the delightful 
illusion was shattered. The word was "misled," 
which had been conceived of as the past tense of a 
present " misle " (pronounced mi-zel). To " misle " 
a person had seemed the most perfect form of 
humbuggery conceivable ; and how much poorer the 
language seemed when it was learned that no such 

word existed ! 



SIB FRANCIS GALTON, whose recreations, accord- 
ing to " Who's Who," were " sunshine, quiet, and 
good, wholesome food," lived by their aid to the ripe 
old age of eighty-nine years less one month. His 
" Memories of My Life," which came out two years 
ago, reminded a too forgetful world that before 
achieving fame as an anthropologist (as a writer on 
heredity, as inventor of finger-print identification, 



and as a pioneer in the science of eugenics) he had 
already, sixty years ago, done notable things in 
African exploration (as chronicled in his " Narra- 
tive of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa " and 
" The Art of Travel ") and in the science of meteor- 
ology (see his "Meteographica, or Methods of Map- 
ping the Weather "). But it will be for his " Hered- 
itary Genius," his " Inquiries into Human Faculty," 
and his " Natural Inheritance," that he will be best 
remembered. As a skilful manipulator of statistics 
and as a deducer from them of daring and original 
conclusions, he won the admiring attention of readers 
far beyond the limits of his own country. He de- 
monstrated in his own person the wisdom of choos- 
ing one's ancestors with care. 



THE CENTENARY OF THE ACADEMIA BELLA 

CRUSCA was celebrated at Florence last month, and 
the occasion was made memorable by the announce- 
ment that work will at once be resumed on the 
great Italian dictionary long ago undertaken by the 
Academy but apparently languishing for want of 
that government aid which is now promised. The 
famous society is to be reorganized, says the report 
from Florence, and one hundred thousand francs is 
to be appropriated for its use. Now let the sister 
academy in Paris bestir itself and give the world a 
complete, authoritative, and up-to-date dictionary of 
the French language. This is the age of great 
enterprises in the department of reference works; 
witness the ponderous Oxford Dictionary and the 
wonderful Cambridge " Encyclopaedia Britannica," 
as well as the "English Literature" and the "Mod- 
ern History " bearing the latter university's name. 



RICHARD WAGNER'S FORTHCOMING AUTOBIOG- 
RAPHY, which is promised for May publication, 
was written in the years 186873 and runs to nearly 
twelve hundred pages of manuscript. Clearer light 
on an interesting and variously interpreted as well 
as variously misrepresented character is to be ex- 
pected from this notable contribution to autobiog- 
raphical literature. The reason why this light is so 
tardily shed may be gathered from the following 
extract from the musician's own preface: "The 
contents of these volumes were taken down from 
my dictation, in the course of several years, by my 
friend and wife, who desired that the story of my 
life should be written by myself. The value of this 
autobiography is based on its plain truth. . . . My 
statements are, therefore, accompanied by exact 
names and figures, and consequently publication is 
not possible until some time after my death, if my 
descendants still care to undertake it." 

JOHN LOCKWOOD KIPLING, notable as architec- 
tural sculptor, artist, art-teacher, author, and illustra- 
tor of his more famous son's works, died in London 
January 29. The relations between the father and son 
were almost those of comradeship in their interests 
and occupations. Mr. Rudyard Kipling has warmly 
acknowledged his indebtedness to his father. 



118 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



" Everything I am and everything I hope to be," 
are his reported words, " I owe to my father. He 
taught me the way to see things and how to know 
things, and I have never departed from his teach- 
ings. I am only satisfied when my work meets 
with his approval." The father's memory is per- 
petuated, in a veiled form, in several of the char- 
acters of the son's books ; but with all these claims 
to remembrance he will probably be best remem- 
bered (as doubtless be himself would wish to be) 
simply as Rudyard Kipling's father. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 

MR. SHAW'S ATTITUDE TOWARD SHAKESPEARE. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Are you not rather inconsistent in printing, in the 
same issue (that of Jan. 16), an account of the Irish 
playwright John Synge, with a reference to his getting 
his dialogue through " a chink in the floor of the old 
Wicklow house where I was staying, that let me hear 
what was being said by the servant-girls in the kitchen," 
and a paragraph about Mr. Shaw's " Dark Lady," which 
assumes Mr. Shaw's purpose in showing Shakespeare as 
likewise a " snapper-up of other men's good sayings " 
to have been, plainly, " a desire to make Shakespeare 
ridiculous " ? 

I have taken time to get a copy of " The Red Book " 
for the purposes of careful perusal of Mr. Shaw's latest 
ebulition; and I am inclined to think that at least a 
part of his object is to show a very warm appreciation 
of the particular sort of genius that he is willing to 
grant the god of the English stage; namely, not the 
furnishing of a great philosophy or of a working theory 
of life, but the getting real life down on paper in an 
intensely interesting and wonderfully lyrical fashion. In 
one of the criticisms entitled " Poor Shakespeare ! " in 
the first volume of the " Dramatic Opinions," Mr. Shaw 
insists upon the over-mastering music of the early plays: 
" it is the score and not the libretto that keeps the work 
alive and fresh, and this is why only musical critics 
should be allowed to meddle with Shakespeare 
especially early Shakespeare." A re-reading of that 
and other essays in the same series will serve to remind 
one that Mr. Shaw has never once shown " a desire to 
make Shakespeare ridiculous;" his attitude in the matter 
has been quite obscured, for most of us, by an amusing 
and daring epigram about Shaw and Shakespeare. 

Therefore, if there is humor in Mr. Shaw's having 
written "The Dark Lady" to assist the projected 
Memorial Theatre, we should call it a humor of Mr. 
Shaw's own particular brand, which is as far removed 
as possible from the " horse-play " that your rash 
paragrapher finds in his latest published work. Mr. 
Shaw has spoken so often and so clearly about Shake- 
speare that he is probably tired of the subject; but we 
wish he might be induced to clear up the present dis- 
cussion with one of his inimitably cogent " rejoinders." 

Chicago, Feb. 8, 1911. MARGARET VANCE. 

THE PLEASURES OF SERIOUS READING. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

I want to commend the views expressed by Mr. 

Cockerell in the last paragraph of his review entitled 

Six Million Years," in THE DIAL of Feb. 1. There 



is not a tenth part enough good reading done, and, 
furthermore, not one person in twenty-five who calls 
himself or herself a " great reader " has any idea of 
how vastly his or her life would be improved in every 
way if the level of reading were raised. The con- 
tinual newspaper and magazine reader of to-day bears 
the same relation to life that a Cook's tourist does to 
travel. If you cannot do better, why, do the best you 
can, of course; but if you can choose between a smat- 
tering and a study, or between an express trip or a 
single long heaven-and-health-giving tramp, do try the 
little-tried once and you will never hesitate again. 
There are planes of readers, as there are ranking 
classes; but we cannot always choose our class, and we 
can always choose our reading. As one who has just 
finished John Morley's Life of Cobden and Fuller's 
Life of Cecil Rhodes, as one who is wandering in the 
footsteps of Scott and Dickens through the pages of 
Christian Tearle's " An American in England " and is 
learning both sides of the greatest modern problem by 
contrasting chapters from Mallock and Sidney Webb, 
I do feel qualified to speak for the fascination of good 
reading. The infallible test of a book is the same as of 
that treasure referred to in the Bible, to modernize 
the rust and the moth, let me say that a really " good 
book " leaves the reader consciously ahead in life. There 
are few " good books " which do not give those who 
absorb them a newer and higher view out over a bigger 
and better world. ANNE WARNER. 

St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 6, 1911. 

THE " THIRTEEN ORIGINAL SITUATIONS " 

AND ''ELEVEN ANCESTRAL WITTICISMS." 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Being interested in Professor Felix E. Schilling's 
reference to " the thirteen original stage situations " and 
" the eleven ancestral witticisms," as quoted by you in 
your issue of January 16, 1 wrote to Professor Schelling 
asking if he would tell me just what these situations and 
witticisms were. He replies that the expressions were 
figures of speech, and were not intended to be taken 
literally. Regarding the "eleven ancestral witticisms," 
he says that the expression " has reference to a clever 
saying of Miss Agnes Repplier some years ago. She 
was speaking on the subject of wit, and said that a 
learned friend of hers had informed her that all current 
jokes might be reduced to 'eleven ancestral witticisms.' 
She also told us that she remarked, upon hearing this, 
that she was surprised there were so many." It seems 
to me that her "learned friend" might better have 
traced the sources of current humor to " the seven 
original jokes," that being the usual expression as I 
have heard it, and one of long standing. 

In this connection 1 should say that I once wrote to 
Mark Twain for information about the " seven original 
jokes." Perhaps he saw m the question a contemplated 
thievery of his secret; for I only received a formal 
note from his secretary saying in effect that he did not 
know of them but had often heard of them. 

Professor Schelling's reference to the "thirteen orig- 
inal situations " is explained by him as having arisen 
in his mind " from some of the statements of books on 
dramatic technique which referred dramatic situations 
to a small number of possibilities." 

Possibly some reader of THE DIAL may be able to 
shed more definite light on the source and meaning of 
these expressions. DANIEL EDWARDS KENNEDY. 

Chestnut Hill, Mass., Feb. 7, 1911. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



119 



CI* 



Ax EARLY VICTORIAN ROMAXCER.* 



In his sketch of William Harrison Ainsworth 
in " The Dictionary of National Biography," 
Mr. Axon observes : " No biography of Ains- 
worth has appeared or is likely to be published." 
The improbable, however, frequently comes to 
pass ; and as for biographers, no man, good or 
bad, who attains to any prominence is free 
from the possibility of undergoing their curious 
microscopic researches. A popular author like 
Ainsworth, whose pen was busy for sixty years, 
and who was a familiar figure in London lit- 
erary and journalistic circles for a quarter of a 
century, was, it seems to us, not so unlikely to 
find his biographer though there could now 
be no chance that a Boswell would appear. 

Mr. Ellis 's biography is one of which any 
man might be proud to be the subject if not 
the author. It fills two handsome volumes, 
aggregating over nine hundred pages, and in- 
cluding fifty-six illustrations, four of which are 
photogravures. There is a genealogical chapter, 
a bibliography, and an index which alone fills 
seventy-four pages and should satisfy the de- 
mands of the most exacting critic. The story 
of A ins worth's life is well planned and well 
told. Some deviations from a strictly chrono- 
logical order seem to be justified. The author 
shows commendable restraint and taste in not 
dwelling on the strictly private life of Ains- 
worth, with which the public need not concern 
itself ; indeed, he almost forgets, it would seem, 
to mention Ainsworth's second marriage, merely 
referring to it several years after it took place. 
His admiration for Ainsworth is great indeed, 
some will call it excessive. He is not wholly 
blind, however, to Ainsworth's defects of char- 
acter. Of literary criticism the book contains 
perhaps too little. Mr. Ellis makes no attempt 
to compare Ainsworth with other writers of 
romance or to estimate his achievement. He 
does to some extent compare Ainsworth's books 
one with another. Although " The Tower of 
London " has been the most popular of Ains- 
worth's stories, Mr. Ellis believes " The Lan- 
cashire Witches " to be his best. In dealing 
with the principal stories, the biographer de- 
votes considerable attention to the local scenery, 
the underlying basis of historical fact, and the 
artist's illustrations. Interesting light is thus 

* WILLIAM HAKRISON Ams WORTH AND HIS FRIENDS. 
By S. M. Ellis. In two volumes. Illustrated. New York : 
John Lane Company. 



thrown on Cruikshank, who drew the illustra- 
tions for ten of Ainsworth's romances, and on 
the methods of working together adopted by 
author and illustrator. In claiming to be 
the " originator " of " The Tower of London," 
Cruikshank is seen in an unfavorable light ; 
probably he was the victim of a hallucination. 

In the treatment of " Jack Sheppard " the 
ethics of the desperado romance receive due con- 
sideration, and the inconsistency of Thackeray 
in condemning Ainsworth for writing a story 
" infinitely more immoral than any thing Fielding 
ever wrote " and praising Cruikshank for ' ' really 
creating the tale " is pointed out with telling 
effect. As a matter of fact, Ainsworth, in 
being censured by a part of the British public 
for writing " Jack Sheppard," became a kind of 
scapegoat ; other " offenders " should have been 
included. Mr. Ellis puts it thus : 

" If it is inherently immoral to take a criminal for 
literary purposes and make him picturesque and inter- 
esting, then the greatest writers will have to stand in 
the same pillory as the author of Jack Sheppard. The 
principal characters of Shakespeare's tragedies of 
Hamlet, of Macbeth, of Othello are but murderers; 
Falstaff is a robber and worse. Scott must answer for 
Rob Roy; Fielding for Jonathan Wild; Gay for The 
Beggar's Opera; Schiller for The Robbers; Hood for 
his magnificent Eugene Aram; Dumas for his Celebrated 
Crimes and so on through Literature of all times and 
countries." 

It may be added that if immorality was actually 
promoted by " Jack Sheppard " and the plays 
to which it gave rise, it is a nice question as to 
what share of the guilt certainly a not incon- 
siderable one belongs to the latter. 

In the course of an extremely busy life 
Ainsworth found time for several Continental 
journeys. Of the journey to Italy in 1830 he 
kept a full record, from which about thirty 
pages of extracts are reproduced by Mr. Ellis. 
This diary is full of youthful enthusiasm and 
shows Ainsworth's power of description to 
advantage. His narrative of the ascent of 
Vesuvius, for example, though too long to 
quote here, is extremely vivid. Here is an 
impression of Venice : 

" After visiting other churches and palaces, we saw 
the Palazzo Foscari not that it is a show house, but 
merely because I felt some interest in the house itself.* 
It was shocking to see the deplorable state in which it 
is. It is an immense mansion, and must have been 
fitted up with great magnificence. The lower room is 
turned into a workshop for masons; and the Grand 
Hall on the first floor is hung with faded tapestry, in 
depressing contrast beneath the proud portraits of the 
Doges, Senators, and Cardinals of this once lofty and 

* In 1821-2 Ainsworth had published parts of a tragedy 
entitled " Venice, or The Fall of the Foscaris." 



120 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



illustrious, but ever unfortunate line. It is in itself an 
emblem of Venice, of which the shell alone remains. 
All the spirit is fled, and the inhabitants who dwell here 
are no more the Venetians of old. 

" After dinner we rowed out to the Islands, and on 
our way enjoyed one of the most superb sunsets it has 
ever been my good fortune to witness. It was more 
than beautiful; the sky and sea were stained with 
crimson, orange, gold, and blue all uniting and blend- 
ing with an infinity of shades more exquisite than the 
hues of a rainbow. The effect of this extraordinary 
relief to the spires of Venice and its picturesque outline 
of houses was quite wonderful. Some smoke, which was 
issuing from one of the islands, was tinged au couleur 
de rose. As the light faded away, the whole mass of 
the city was thrown into dark relief against the horizon 
and presented a picture something like a great trans- 
parency." 

In the article already referred to, Mr. Axon 
also remarks that Ainsworth's correspondence, 
when examined after his death, was found " to 
have but little biographical or literary import- 
ance." The large selection printed by Mr. 
Ellis does not wholly negative this view ; yet 
several letters are of much interest from a lit- 
erary point of view, and all are written in a 
fresh, true, natural style. We quote his de- 
scription of Browning, written to John Macrone 
in July, 1836 : 

"I had yesterday, as I anticipated, the pleasure of 
making your new Poet's acquaintance, and from what 
I saw of him and from what I heard and saw I 
am induced to form a very high opinion of him. He 
is full of genius. In appearance he might pass for a 
son of Paganini, and Maclise and I must hide our 
diminished heads before his super-abundant black locks 
while even your whiskers, improved as they are by 
the salt water, are insignificant compared with his lion- 
like ruff. But this is absurd and as absurdity is the 
farthest thing removed from Mr. Browning, I ought 
not to connect anything of the kind with him. Sordello 
complete, he is to write a Tragedy for Macready and 
I feel quite sure that he has great dramatic genius." 

We do not know whether Ains worth under- 
stood " Sordello " or not ; but it is pleasant to 
note that he recognized Browning's genius and 
urged Macrone to publish " Sordello "; the 
latter apparently would have done so in 1837 
had not death prevented. 

Many other great Victorians figure promin- 
ently in Mr. Ellis's pages ; the list of Ains- 
worth's literary friends was a long one. Thus 
we find Charles Lamb writing in 1823 about 
William Warner's " Syrinx " : 

" I have read Warner with great pleasure. What 
an elaborate piece of alliteration and antithesis ! W hy, 
it must have been a labour far above the most difficult 
versification. There is a fine simile or picture of Semi- 
ramis arming to repel a siege." 

Ainsworth and Charles Dickens were close 
friends for many years ; " Boz " was a frequent 



guest of Ainsworth at Kensal Manor House, and 
the two planned in 1838 to collaborate in a work 
which should " illustrate ancient and modern 
London in a Pickwick form," but the plan came 
to nothing. Thackeray likewise was intimate 
with Ainsworth ; he was very fond of Ains- 
worth's three little daughters, and often used to 
walk out to Kensal on Sunday and accompany 
the Ainsworths to evening service at Willesden 
Church. Wordsworth was also a visitor at 
Kensal Manor. There is no record of Ains- 
worth's opinion of Wordsworth ; but an amus- 
ing letter from Mrs. Hughes to Mrs. Sou they 
is quoted in which she intimates very distinctly 
that for her, as well as for Fanny Burney, the 
Laureate idol had more than feet of clay. 
Canon Barham, of u Ingoldsby Legends '' fame, 
took great interest in Ainsworth's work, and 
Ainsworth often visited Barham at his house 
in Amen Corner. Here also figure Sergeant 
Talfourd, Douglas Jerrold, G. P. R. James, 
Lockhart, Sir Theodore Martin, Captain 
Marryat, Horace Smith, Daniel Maclise, and 
many other important Englishmen of the forties 
and fifties. But the friend whose name recurs 
oftenest was James Crossley, of Manchester, 
who became president of the Chetham Society 
and who was one of the most bookish of men, 
amassing a library of over a hundred thousand 
volumes. His was a peculiarly devoted friend- 
ship, extending to almost seventy years, and 
Ainsworth fully recognized its value. 

But we must take leave of this interesting 
book. There is about Ainsworth's life a pathos 
which strikes the reader somewhat forcibly as 
he finishes this biography. Here was a man 
who, though he once spoke of himself as " the 
idlest of the race of authors," lived to produce 
forty romances and was at one time the editor 
of three prominent magazines. Yet so fleeting 
is literary fame that in his advanced years, in 
order to maintain his family, he was compelled 
to keep on writing long after he had spent him- 
self, and that he died in reduced circumstances 
and comparative obscurity. It is customary, of 
course, to say that Ainsworth was careless in 
his writing, and that if he had taken more pains 
he would have achieved a more lasting reputa- 
tion. But it will not do to say that Ainsworth 
was careless (cf. Ellis i. 413); and although 
somebody has found a few dangling participles 
in his works, that does not account for his pass- 
ing from the field of popularity. It is owing 
in large measure to the coming in of new fash- 
ions in literature and of new writers with no 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



121 



more genius than Ainsworth possessed and with 
perhaps not so many admirable qualities as are 
exhibited in his character and his best works. 

For this much can be said for Ainsworth : 
that he was far from being the least of those 
numerous " imitators " "who followed in the wake 
of Scott ; that he had great powers in descrip- 
tion and the combination of historical facts with 
thrilling imaginative scenes which are essentially 
not untrue to life ; that his stories are never 
tainted by immoral suggestion, and never in 
reality make the worse appear the better ; that 
the influence of his work on readers and writers 
alike has on the whole been good. By no means 
a great man, Ainsworth at least earned a humble 
place among the romancers of his day, and is cer- 
tainly worthy of the sympathetic and creditable 
biography which Mr. Ellis has produced. 

CLARK S. NORTHUP. 



THE AXCIEXTS ILI/UMIXATED.* 



The minute and laborious scholarship of 
the past century is at last bearing fruit that is 
within the reach of the ordinary public. The 
ancient Roman world is coming really to be 
understood. To books on Roman social condi- 
tions, such as those of Inge, Dill, Pellison, and 
Warde Fowler ; to the archaeologically flavored 
works of Thomas, Boissier, and Mau-Kelsey; 
to text-books on Roman life and Roman monu- 
ments, like those of Johnston and Platner and 
Carter-Huelsen ; and to works of historical 
fiction, like Mrs. Elizabeth Champney's " Ro- 
mance of Rome'" and Mrs. Anne C. E. Allinson's 
brilliant essay-stories in " The Atlantic." to 
these are now added "The Influence of Wealth 
in Imperial Rome," by the well-known author of 
" A Friend of Caesar," " A Victor of Salamis," 
etc.; and " Life in the Roman World of Nero and 
St. Paul," by Professor Tucker of the University 
of Melbourne, whose popularization entitled 
" Life in Ancient Athens " appeared four years 
ago. 

Both these books are frank attempts to stim- 
ulate interest in Roman antiquity in those who 
may not have had the privilege of special study 
in ancient history and the classical literatures. 
"Political Corruption and High Finance," "The 
Accumulation and Expenditure of Wealth," 

*THE INFLUENCE OF WEALTH IN IMPERIAL ROME. By 
William Stearns Davis, Professor of Ancient History in the 
University of Minnesota. New York : The Macmillan Co. 

LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL. 
By T. G. Tucker, Professor of Classical Philology in the 
University of Melbourne. New York : The Macmillan Co. 



" Private Munificence," " Marriage, Divorce, 
Childlessness," "Why the Roman Empire Fell," 
such are some of the topics on which Professor 
Davis writes, with a range so wide that his book 
is almost deservingof the title of " Roman Life." 
In his attractive chapter on " The Business 
Panic of 33 A.D." he begins by delivering the 
" stunning blow between the eyes " recognized 
in these days as the sine qua non in the publish- 
ing industry, and the reader is filled with lively 
anticipation of travelling the hedonistic, if not 
the royal, road to learning. 

Professor Davis's succeeding chapters do not 
quite fulfil the promise of the first. They are 
so closely packed with masses of data, and 
court so little the graces of presentation, as to 
savor somewhat of lecture-notes and the card- 
catalogue ; the proof is carelessly read ; there 
are occasional gaucheries which mar the other- 
wise nervous and rapidly-moving style ; and 
there are inaccuracies in statement of fact. 
One might find fault, too, with the use in the 
same paragraph of evidence from Horace and 
Jerome, or from Ammianus and Pliny. To 
treat as a unity the diversities of a period 
embracing three or four centuries, or of the 
lands of an empire extending from Spain to 
Syria and from England to Egypt, may indeed 
find its excuse in the homogeneity of Roman 
civilization ; but, after all, when we think of a 
historian doing the like for Great Britain or 
the United States, we begin to realize the possi- 
bilities of such license. And again, the book 
contains too much detail for the lay reader, and 
too little apparatus for the scholar. On the 
whole, Professor Davis would have better ful- 
filled his declared purpose of conveying to the 
average reader a realizing sense of " the realm 
of the great god Lucre " if he had presented 
his points of view in a series of essays, making 
sparing use of representative facts from the great 
mass at hand ; or if he had utilized again the 
historical novel, a vehicle which he has shown 
himself so competent to employ. The lighter 
form of conveyance would at the same time have 
conciliated a larger audience and made stronger 
impression on the individual. 

We hasten to add that Professor Davis's 
work has pronounced virtues, and will be found 
highly serviceable. It has a wide range, is pre- 
sented in orderly and effective manner, and 
really illuminates ; and it is the only book in 
the language that covers the ground in this 
manner. Those who wish to rehabilitate in 
imagination a great period in the history of the 
great people whose civilization lies so broadly 



122 



[Feb. 16, 



and deeply at the foundations of our modern 
life will place this work upon their shelves. 

Professor Tucker's " Life in the Roman 
World of Nero and St. Paul" is composed 
upon a different plan. Its purpose is to pre- 
sent a picture of the universal life of the period. 
It is not only avowedly popular, but really so. 
Its author makes most judicious selection of 
material, omitting all that is superfluous, and 
yet sets before his readers an abundance of in- 
formation. He refrains, in a manner quite 
heroic for a professor of the classics, from the 
use of Latin quotations and expressions ; he is 
chary even of proper names, and displays no 
slight degree of ingenuity in avoiding them. 
" Broadway " for Via Lata, " backbone " for 
spina, " many-cornered " for polygonal, " an 
old grandfather, the forerunner of the modern 
pantaloon," " a cunning sharper," " a garrul- 
ous glutton with a fat face (known as Chops)" 
and " an amorous Simple Simon " for Pappus, 
Maccus, Bucco, and Dossennus of the Atellana, 
these are a few examples of the humane Pro- 
fessor's dread of frightening the reader with 
technicalities and foreign phraseology, a dread 
which is to be regretted only so far as it seems 
responsible for the almost total absence of illus- 
trative passages from Latin literature even in 
translation. 

Professor Tucker's language is natural, 
straightforward, and easy, and is occasionally 
beautified by quiet literary ornament. His 
lucidity of style is equalled by the lucidity of 
his arrangement ; the first eight chapters, on the 
Empire and its administration, the character 
of the Capital and its Emperor, etc., introduce 
the main body of the book. Nine chapters which 
describe the house and the private life of its 
inhabitants, and the concluding six chapters, 
on the army, religion, study, philosophy, art, 
and burial, sum up certain of the larger phases 
of existence in an age which for fulness has 
rarely been paralleled. Sometimes, as in " The 
Social Day of a Roman Aristocrat," the chap- 
ters are semi-narrative. Everywhere the author 
displays the natural teacher's bent by so paral- 
leling ancient with present-day conditions as to 
make antiquity rise before his audience in flesh 
and blood. A hundred and twenty-five illus- 
trations, including maps and plans, contribute 
to the usefulness of the work, though their 
elegance is not always worthy of the text. 

In spite of the popular nature of Professor 
Tucker's book, it never lacks thorough dignity, 
and is throughout a work of sound scholarship. 
The student of Roman literature and history 



will find its sane and sensible presentations at 
the same time entertaining and helpful. 

One of the impressions carried away from the 
reading of these two books is that of the ex- 
ceeding modernness of antiquity. We seem to 
stand on familiar ground especially in Professor 
Davis's account of the crimes and follies of the 
ambitious rich. We are told of the anti-treat 
law of A.D. 67, of a block system of controlling 
votes, of the centralization of wealth, of union 
labor and strikes, of pall-bearers who stood for 
the " closed shop " in their business, and of 
" graft " in a thousand forms. A big estate 
supports 4117 slaves, 3600 yoke of oxen, and 
257,000 other animals, and has funds amount- 
ing to $3,000,000. Hadrian says of the Alex- 
andrians that " their only god is money "; and 
we are assured that Caesar would have sub- 
scribed to Walpole's alleged assertion that " all 
men have their price." Altogether, Professor 
Davis's book might almost be entitled " Muck- 
raking in Roman Antiquity." Despite his care 
to paint in the lights as well as the shadows, the 
nature of his subject leads him inevitably to 
present facts of such character as to strengthen 
belief in the adage that the love of money is the 
root of all evil. It leaves us no happier. Let 
the newspapers and the muckraking magazines 
and book publishers look to it : in spite of the 
purification they are working, too much setting 
forth of one kind of truth is making us a nation 
of pessimists. We are put in mind by it all of 
the ancient historian who says that the time has 
come "when we can endure neither our vices 
nor their remedies." 

Professor Tucker's book, by reason of the 
universal sweep of his subject, leaves vis with a 
truer and more encouraging picture of Roman 
society. It should be read for the sake of a 
background and corrective for special works 
like Professor Davis's, whose fault of producing 
distorted impressions is inherent rather than due 
to the author. GRANT SHOWERMAN. 



LYRIC IRELAND.* 



Whether Mr. Redfern Mason, in his " Song 
Lore of Ireland," has written the story of 
Erin's chief contribution to the world's music, 
or whether he has given us a moving picture of 
the island's many yet lessening disasters, are 
questions, to each of which, it seems to us, 
can be made an affirmative or negative reply. 

* THE SONG LORE OF IRELAND. Erin's Story in Music 
and Verse. By Redfern Mason. New York : Wessels & 
Bissell Co. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



123 



Indeed, Mr. Mason calls his book alternately 
a History of Irish Songs or a History of the 
Irish People. We shall, however, deal here 
in the main with the music^and only second- 
arily with the people. Mr. Mason, although 
not a native son of Erin, is an ardent partisan, 
and his narrative glows with a sympathy to 
which the reader readily responds, and burns 
with an indignation that kindles the corre- 
sponding emotion as it is intended to do. The 
unfortunate country of which he treats has 
sent forth a series of songs which represent her 
every mood and display her every characteristic 
her light-hearted gaiety, her love of family 
and kindred, her religious enthusiasms, her 
hatred of wrong, her devotion to the abused 
and long-suffering fatherland. 

Ireland has always been the lyrist among 
nations. Her principal instrument has been 
the harp, and from time immemorial she has 
poured forth her full heart in song. The record 
goes back to a period long before the Christian 
era, and the claims which are made for her 
priority in many forms of musical invention 
and construction are curious and edifying. 
Unhappily, however, the power of musical de- 
velopment and the vigor of continuous and sys- 
tematic production do not seem to have been 
hers. Richey, in his " Short History of the 
Irish People," makes the following statement: 
" As to Celtic music, the separate airs handed 
down from remote antiquity are unequalled in 
variety, tenderness, and expression ; but Irish 
music has never risen beyond an air ; operas, 
oratorios and concerted pieces have been pro- 
duced by people of inferior sympathies but 
greater industry." That is to say, Irish music 
is of the naive and primitive type ; it has never 
entered upon the phase of elaborate exploitation 
of its resources, nor upon the yet higher stage 
of full expression of man's conscious and deeper 
experiences. 

Mr. Mason says, perhaps with pardonable 
enthusiasm : 

" Irish song is the expression of Celtic genius in music 
and verse, in every-day life and history. . . . Gerald 
Barry, the Welsh monk and historian, hater of the Irish 
though he was, declares that Erin's harpers surpass all 
others. That was in the twelfth century. Ireland's 
musical skill had won her fame long ages before that, 
however; when the wife of Pepin of France wanted 
choristers for her new abbey of Nivelle, it was not to 
Italy, to Germany, or to England, that she sent, but to 
Ireland. That was in the seventh century. In Eliza- 
bethan days the songs of Ireland won praise even from 
her enemy and traducer, Edmund Spenser. Shake- 
spearian enigmas, long insoluble, become plain in the 
light of the poet's acquaintance with Celtic lore. Bacon 



of Vernlam declared that of all instruments the Irish 
harp had the sweetest note and the most prolonged. 
Irish airs found their way into the virginal books of 
Tudor and Jacobean days. Byrde and Purcell wrote 
variations on Irish tunes. As in peace, so it was in 
war. England's battles have been fought and won to 
Irish music. The United States won its freedom to the 
strains of < All the Way to Galway,' known all over the 
world aS 'Yankee Doodle,' and while the English 
marched out of Yorktown, the pipes squealed the tune 
of ' The World Turned Upside Down.' Beethoven, 
Mendelssohn, and Berlioz all confess the beauty of 
Irish melody." 

The structure of these songs is, of necessity, 
simple, as is the case with the folk-song every- 
where. They are a combination of words and 
music which came together into the world at 
one birth. They are written in primitive keys, 
which signify their far-off origin. They have 
been handed down from father to son, from 
mother to daughter ; and they have that variety 
of versions which such a descent brings with it 
perforce. These songs have no known authors ; 
they belong to the whole people, and the tribe, 
or district, or kingdom, or even nation, is their 
creator. This is true of the old and original 
Gaelic songs ; when the Anglicization of Ireland 
began and progressed to its inevitable conclu- 
sion, the individual composer appeared and 
made songs for the men and women about him ; 
but then the individual composer was possessed 
of the national feeling and predisposition, and 
he followed the model of the ancient and per- 
vasive popular song. 

A primitive classification of these songs, as 
found in an old Gaelic battle-story, divides them 
into the Soontree, or sleepy music, lullabies, 
which Mr. Mason declares to be the most beauti- 
ful in the world ; the Goltree,or the music of sad- 
ness, including the keens and laments; the 
Gauntee, or mirthful music, jigs and reels which 
were danced under the trees or in the halls of 
the chiefs and castellans. This does not exhaust 
the characterization of Irish music. There are 
hymns belonging to both religions, Pagan and 
.Christian ; battle- odes, songs accompanying the 
daily work, agricultural and other ; mystical 
songs full of the fairy lore which fills the island 
from sea to sea. 

The musician of Ireland was not necessarily 
the poet ; the bard and the minstrel fulfilled" 
distinct functions. The former occupied an 
important place in the household of the chief or 
king in the tribal and communistic organization 
which persisted to so late a period in Ireland ; 
he was part of the reigning pageantry, he was 
the chronicler of the dynasty's great achieve- 
ments, he was a counsellor, he received an 



124 



[Feb. 16, 



elaborate education. The music usually came 
from another hand, although the bard often 
was musician as well. The bards and minstrels 
continued in Ireland down into the eighteenth 
century, and the songs of one of the last of 
them, Carolan, received the commendation of 
Beethoven. 

The Irish bard, however, in the main took 
only short flights of song ; he was capable of 
the lyric ecstasy, but he had not the construc- 
tive ability nor the power of consecutive labor 
which bring forth the epic. The three great 
cycles of Irish adventure and achievement the 
triumph of the mythological Tuatha de Danann 
over the Fomorians, the heroic tales of Deirdre 
and of Queen Meve of Connaught, the Red 
Branch Series, and the more simple and human 
narratives of Finn MacCool and his son Ossian, 
come down to us in prose versions like the sagas 
of Iceland. Some Irish poet is yet to appear 
and do for these separate legends what Tennyson 
did for the Arthurian cycle ; he will weave them 
into the national epic of Ireland. 

The number of the songs now to be found in 
collections, which have been made with great 
care, is very large. Mr. Mason gives in his book 
about forty ; and this is only a small fraction 
of extant and authenticated pieces. Among 
them are specimens of the various compositions 
which have always solicited the Irish muse. 
" The Last Rose of Summer " appears in its 
original form, somewhat sophisticated by Moore, 
and not to its advantage. The famous " Coulin " 
occurs first in its prime simplicity, then as sung 
in another part of the country, and then as 
embroidered by the harpers ambitious for 
instrumental effects. We find a Plough Song, 
a Smith Song, a Spinning Song, several jigs, 
reels, laments, the Cry of the Banshee, " The 
White Cockade," " All the Way to Galway," 
and a stirring march. Mr. Mason carries his 
history through the Gaelic period, the Danish 
and Norman invasions, the Tudor tyranny, the 
Cromwell persecution, the Jacobite illusion, 
and into the morning redness of to-day. In 
spite of everything, the Irishman has main- 
tained himself, has always expressed himself in 
lyric outbursts of joy or indignation, and has 
never abandoned the hope which has been always 
on the eve of success and fulfilment. Mr. 
Mason inspires his critic with a measure of his 
unquenchable ardor. 

Mr. Grattan Flood, in his exhaustive " His- 
tory of Irish Music," quotes the following state- 
ment from Sir Hubert Parry: "Irish Folk 
Music is probably the most human, most varied, 



most poetical in the world, and is particularly 
rich in tunes which imply considerable sym- 
pathetic sensitiveness." Mr. Douglas Hyde, in 
his " Early Gaelic Literature," makes a strong 
plea for the study of the bardic writings and 
the accompanying music, on account of its 
antiquity and its representation of primitive 
social conditions ; and we have all heard what 
Matthew Arnold had to say on the same subject. 
Through the labors of O'Curry and Petrie, and 
a later band of scholars, the light of scientific 
research has been cast upon the dark places 
and the story has been successfully unfolded. 
Throughout Gaelic times, Ireland, in spite of 
fearfully untoward conditions, continued pro- 
ductive in literature and music ; when English 
superseded the ancient tongue, she illustrated 
her vicissitudes with history and poetry and 
oratory and song, and at the present hour she 
has a band of patriots who are also writers, 
and who have given her what she has hitherto 
lacked a real dramatic literature. The melo- 
dies of Moore were a notable achievement; the 
old songs were again presented to the world, 
and furnished with new words which in most 
cases married the fitting verse to the expectant 
song ; and the later poets and musicians have 
added to the credit and honor of the country. 

The book of Mr. Mason deserves only praise ; 
he has done very well a work by no means easy. 
He has the gift of clear and picturesque nar- 
rative ; he is a musician of learning and under- 
standing; he knows his subject, and has pre- 
sented it in attractive guise ; he has not been the 
antiquarian only, but everywhere has brought 
the human interest into the foreground : if he 
is evidently a partisan, he can perhaps be for- 
given when one follows the events as he discloses 
them. The book is a credit to the publishers, 
and it should certainly be attractive to the gen- 
eral reader as well as to the lover of music. 
Louis JAMES BLOCK. 



Mr. HERBERT W. PAUL is the editor of a volume of 
" Famous Speeches " by British statesmen, from Crom- 
well to Gladstone. The volume has a general introduc- 
tion, and a special introductory note is provided for 
each of the selections. Sixteen names are represented, 
besides that of Lincoln, who is the one exception to the 
rule which confines the contents to British examples. 
Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co. are the publishers of this 
work. A different sort of volume is the " American 
Oratory of To-day," which Professor Edwin Du Bois 
Shorter has edited, and which comes to us from the 
South- West Publishing Co. Here we have only ex- 
tracts, and the writers represented (to the number of 
nearly two hundred) are living, save for a few who 
have very recently died. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



125 



THE LATEST STUDY or MOLIERE ix 
ENGLISH.* 



In a prefatory note, the author of the latest 
of the encouraging number of recent Moliere 
studies in English,f sets forth his plan and his 
point of view. He purposes to present, first, 
" the facts of MoliSre's life, stripped of all the 
legends which compass it about ; second, to 
trace his development as a dramatist, making 
it plain how cautiously he advanced in his art 
and how slowly he reached the full expansion 
of his power ; and third, to show his intimate 
relation to the time in which he lived, the glit- 
tering beginning of the reign of Louis XIV." 
Professor Matthews calls his book a biography, 
and has " endeavored always to centre attention 
on Moliere himself." 

Of the three avenues by which Professor 
Matthews has approached his subject, he has 
evidently been attracted most by the middle 
one, i.e., Moliere's development as a dramatist. 
In discussing this development he has wisely 
kept the plays in their chronological order, 
thereby avoiding confusion and impressing the 
reader with the continuity and the homogeneity 
of the great Frenchman's growth as a dramatic 
power. Indeed, this part of the plan has been 
so well conceived and so cleverly executed, 
especially as regards the lighter plays and the 
bearing of the unusually intelligent theatre- 
going Parisian public upon the length and 
breadth of Moliere's career as a playwright, 
that one may reasonably be inclined to regret 
that the author has not confined himself to the 
discussion of this development. But the book 
is intended as a biography. It is not a history 
of Moliere's dramatic career, but a biography 
of Moliere himself which the author has " sought 
to establish solidly on the admitted facts," using 
no " legends " and refraining from borrowing 
hints or drawing inferences from such pam- 
phlets as " Elomire Hypocondre " and " La 
Fameuse Comedienne." The intention clearly 
has been dictated by scholarly integrity. 

It is not, however, a critic's province to dis- 
cuss an author's intentions ; rather is it his 

* MOLIERE. His LIFE AITD HIS WORKS. By Brander 
Matthews, Professor of Dramatic Literature in Columbia 
University. Illustrated. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

f Beginning with Henry M. Trollope's " Life of Moliere," 
London, 1905, we have had : Karl Mantzius's *" Moliere and 
his Times'" (translated from the Danish), London and New 
York, 1905 ; Marzials's Moliere in the Miniature Series of 
Great Writers, 1905: H. C. Chatfield-Taylors "Moliere, a 
Biography,'' New York, 1906; A. R. Waller's ''The Plays 
of Moliere," 6 vols.. London, 1902-08 ; and Curtis Hidden 
Page's Moliere, in the French Classics for English Readers 
Series, two volumes, New York. 1908. 



function to discover how thoroughly they have 
been carried out, and to state his findings as 
impartially as may be. It seems to me, in the 
first place, that Professor Matthews has scarcely 
distinguished between biography and history. 
Montesquieu's distinction is still valid. He 
said that biography studies the peculiarities of 
individual character, and history the general 
aspects of the society in which these peculiar- 
ities appeared. The general aspects of French 
society contemporaneous with the great humor- 
ist are placed before us with fine integrity ; the 
author's characterization of Louis XIV. as mon- 
arch and as man is done in masterly manner, 
although the courtly background of the lighter 
plays is scarcely more than sketched in ; but 
what of Moliere the man ? Do we not miss that 
coloring, that vivifying power which is so essen- 
tial in the process of presenting the subject of 
a biography as a living human being ? 

The modern view of history is hostile to the 
anecdote, but biography cannot well get along 
without it. What if it be not true that the 
king invited the actor to sit at meat with him ? 
what if it be not proved that Bellocq the poet 
offered to help him make the king's bed ? These 
" legends " are truer than many a fact may be, 
because they are generic and stand for a long 
series of facts which it would be futile to es- 
tablish, and of which the significance is that 
Moliere, being an actor, was a social outcast 
with whom courtiers would not associate. This 
fact being either established or corroborated 
by these legends, it follows that Moliere must 
often have been deeply offended, and, being 
human, must sometimes have reacted, especially 
when opportunity offered during the building 
of a comedy. But it is exactly this biographical 
point of view that Professor Matthews eschews. 
He separates the man from the playwright, 
on the ground that the construction of plays is 
the most objective of the arts. He neglects 
the man, he does not make him live before us 
in his characteristics ; the man merely estab- 
lishes the Illustre Theatre, fails, goes to the 
country, comes back to Paris, and dies on 
schedule time. But the playwright we see at 
i work very clearly ; and if the scope of the book 
had been limited to that of a history of Molidre's 
dramatic career, it would have found an empty 
niche waiting for it. 

Molidre created the era of modern comedy. 

Was a new era ever created objectively, in cold 

blood? Is not Moliere's deep melancholy alter- 

j nating with rollicking fun proof enough of his 

i abiding subjectivity? Your objective man or 



126 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



woman is wont to have a cheerful or grave, but 
an equable temper, and creates no new eras. I 
venture to doubt whether an equable temper 
was ever humoristic also: the millennium is 
not yet. If Professor Matthews had stooped 
to the legend of the Due de la Feuillade who 
rubbed Moliere's nose against the buttons of 
his coat till it bled, or to the legend of his 
quarrels with Armande Bejart, the reader would 
not have received an altogether incorrect im- 
pression of the dynamics of Moliere's sensitive- 
ness. Brunetire points out how the ascendency 
of women in the seventeenth century, which is 
at the root of its contrast with the sixteenth, 
hampered Moliere's growth and accounts for 
his not being greater than he is. Considering 
his penetrating genius and the excellent educa- 
tion he had had, he must have known that this 
ascendency was a fact. Besides, he was a 
naturalist, i.e., he insisted on seeing things 
as they are. But society in his day insisted 
on warping nature into artificiality and con- 
vention, with their corollaries of "humbug and 
pretense." As Professor Matthews points out, 
MolieYe hated these. Would mere academic dis- 
like, or the requirements of the ticket-office, or 
a laudable desire to write a good play, nerve a 
human being to such attacks upon women as 
we find "Les Precieuses Kidicules" and the 
" Femmes Savantes " to be ? or to such an 
attack upon woman-dominated society as is 
" Le Misanthrope"? No; indignation, hate, 
underlie these. Is hate not a very subjective 
passion, and is it not always caused by personal 
incidents and conditions which the hater finds 
unbearable? The "legends" tell what these 
incidents were or might be. Molidre reacted, 
fought back ; it is not possible that a man of 
his high seriousness had that lukewarm pleasant 
thing, " a message," which the author twice 
asserts he had. It had not yet been invented. 
Again, Molire lived at a time when the clergy 
were an all-pervading power, which as far as 
he and those he loved were concerned was 
exerted to keep him and them in a position of 
ignominious contempt, and who, unless he ab- 
jured his great life, would even make his death 
an occasion for insult. And yet is there only 
objective criticism in "Tartuffe"? Moliere 
had a grumpy, grasping father, and he himself 
delighted in generous expenditure for his wife 
and his friends. And yet is it mere coincidence 
that his comedy fathers are all grumpy and 
grasping towards their children ? Moliere lost 
his mother in boyhood, there are practically 
no mothers in his comedies ; and what a carica- 



ture Madame Pernelle is ! yet was this owing 
to the fact that there was no " old woman " in 
his company? Indeed, I make bold to surmise 
that in suppressing the " legends " and in basing 
his biography only on " the admitted facts," 
Professor Matthews has merely invented a new 
method of expressing Ms opinion. 

The sort of reader to whom this biography is 
addressed cannot fail to discover that Professor 
Matthews has not always succeeded in keeping 
his foothold firmly on the admitted facts. A 
quotation will illustrate the author's procedure 
in this matter. He says, page 49 : " These were 
the . . . performers Moliere in his boyhood had 
seen in the open street, at the fair of Saint- 
Germain, and perhaps also in the playhouse 
itself (if it was a fact that he was taken to the 
theatre by his grandfather)." On page 27 we 
are told that "it is likely that she Madeleine 
Bejart had hoped to become a countess," and 
on page 179 that "it is possible that this with- 
drawal of ' Don Juan ' was made a condition for 
the ultimate approval of ' Tartuffe.' " These and 
many other similar facts are not yet admitted, 
as the author duly indicates ; but that they 
have been used shows how difficult it is to 
carry out the programme he lays down in 
the preface. More serious is a slip like that 
on page 22, where the author states that the 
Illustre Theatre was housed in a tennis court 
" owned by a man named Metayer." But this 
court was the Mestayers' (joint or share- 
renters') court. There was, of course, no man 
named Metayer. The business was transacted 
by Noel Gallois, the tennis master,* who signed 
the lease, the rent being 1900 livres a year. 
On page 83 the author makes Louis Bejart die 
just after the first performance of the Etourdi, 
which on page 33 he puts at 1653, although 
Grimarest's date has been discarded by Lefranc 
(1906) and others for that of La Grange, who 
mentions 1655. But in the immense labor of 
building a book of this kind one is fortunate in 
escaping with the very few errors of this sort 
that the book contains. 

I hope that a word or two concerning the 
English of the work may not be considered im- 
proper. When anyone takes pleasure in a thing, 
he is made to " joy in " it. When he has cause 
for an angry protest, that protest becomes " ex- 
acerbated." And Moliere " bodies forth " his 
interpretation of life. At the same time, to 
expose becomes "to show up," to address "to 
hold forth," to resign " to drop out," to exhibit 

*See " Le Molieriste," 1885-86, p. 123; or Aug. Vitu, 
" Le Jeu de Paume des Me'tayers," Lemerre, 1883. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



127 



" to show off." On page 97, poor Moliere is 
made to " work against time," and to be " ready 
to the minute." It is a question whether or no 
Madame de Rambouillet was herself only " half 
an Italian," or whether " the immediate appeal 
of the playwright is to the eyes of the spectators 
and to the ears of the auditors in the playhouse 
itself." It is agreed that Moliere was a realist ; 
but why he should as such not brood over the 
darker aspects of humanity, which the conjunc- 
tion "however much" (page 91) would seem to 
deny him the right to do, the author does not ex- 
plain. At the end of the book no one except acol- 
lege student would have a legitimate excuse for 
not knowing that Moliere had been nourished on 
Rabelais and Montaigne, that he had a hearty 
detestation for humbug of all sorts, that he was 
a humorist, that he had had thorough instruc- 
tion in philosophy, or that in the Italian plays 
the acting occurred in the neutral ground be- 
tween the houses. These repetitions, and a 
little padding here and there, might easily have 
been avoided. 

"When all is said and done, there remains the 
very praisworthy effort of which this book is a 
token. That professors of modern literatures 
should begin more and more to join urbanity 
with scholarship, and even to address the general 
reader now and then, is a hopeful sign, hope- 
ful also for American scholarship itself. Pro- 
fessor Matthews is a modern pioneer in this 
respect, and on that ground alone deserves the 
most cordial recognition, the more so because 
he has had the courage to do this at a time when 
philological erudition of an almost physical type 
has been the surest road to a reputation for 

soundness. ., _. T 

F. C. L. VAN STEENDEREN. 



AX IMPRESSIOXIST IX SPAIX.* 



Mr. C. Bogue Luffmann's " Quiet Days in 
Spain " is most appropriately named. Mr. 
Luffmann, already known as the author of " A 
Vagabond in Spain," confesses here to feeling 
a world weariness and to seeking a rest cure 
among the quiet hills of Spain. He shuns the 
towns, browses contentedly about the country, 
visiting forty-two of the forty-nine provinces 
during the nine months of his stay. At first 
he is conscious of the guilt of idleness, and feels 
that he must be off and busy ; but he restrains 

* QUTKT DAYS IK SPAIN . By C. Bogne Luffmann. New 
York : E. P. Button & Co. 



himself, and as he reclines upon a hillside look- 
ing over Cordova he thus communes aloud : 

" Shall I not dare to lie at ease upon the grass, to be 
warmed by the sun, to smell the odours of clean earth 
and pungent weed; may I not read my history here, 
and for a time rest unconcerned? What need I to 
care about news and the business of the world ? Here 
is enough, for I can dream, and ponder over the past." 

In order to gain a knowledge of conditions 
of life and the nature of certain rural industries, 
Mr. Luffmann spends the winter upon a vine- 
yard of thirteen hundred acres situated in the 
highland between Malaga and Granada, while 
he passes the summer in what remains of an old 
Bernardine monastery on the Vega of Malaga. 
In these out-of-the-way spots he gathers much 
curious information about domestic -customs, 
which he gives us in a discursive and gossipy 
manner none the less agreeable when the dis- 
connected observations are apropos of nothing. 
Many of these sketches of Spanish life are 
vividly and accurately drawn. 

Together with all this, however, there is no 
lack of soulful passages. Mr. Luffmann every- 
where seeks an impression. This he cannot 
always secure, and in plain old Santiago he is 
obliged to confess : " I can say no more than 
that I have seen Santiago, for I had no fine feel- 
ings there, and where one does not feel one does 
not live." He fares somewhat better elsewhere. 
At Covadonga, for example, he is impressed as 
follows : 

" I leapt the torrents and drank from dripping stones 
and calm, arrested pools. I tired, I rested, gathered 
strength, and must needs go on. Hills were below and 
above me, and valleys near and far. . . . 

" I fought with the bumble-bees for the honey within 
the throats of the large purple flowers of the wild nettle. 
I gathered nosegays and sniffed and chewed them as a 
child, and child-like threw them away. Where the 
ground was sure, I chased little blue and brown butter- 
flies, but without reason, for taking me for a Franciscan 
they settled on my hands. I drank more and more 
water, for the air lightened with every step, and there 
came that longing we have in mountain heights to be 
washed and pure. I rolled up my sleeves and let my 
arms sink to their elbows in an icy pool held by the 
ooze on the mountain-side. Then I lay on a mossy slab 
and felt it would be better if I lay beneath, in the con- 
viction that there I should be undisturbed forever. But 
freshening, a supple ash-plant waved in my face, and 
all the hard years slipped away. I made me a whistle 
with a high plaintive note like that of a wounded bird; 
so I took a thicker piece with a lip which almost filled 
my mouth; this had a full, challenging sort of sound 
and stimulated me to a quick march up the mountain. 
I climbed, I blew, and I laughed at my childishness 
and pride in small things. Then I came into the pres- 
ence of the great, for I arrived at the summit of what 
proved to be the highest peak for miles around. It 
was no great height, four thousand feet or so; but all 
in sight of it was mine ! to the east, mountains and 



128 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



mist; to the north and the south, mountains and mist; 
and towards the west, the light of the setting sun. Far 
below lay wonderful valleys, castles, trees, and fields, 
and the shrine of Covadonga; around me swept buoyant 
and sustaining air, which said to my soul, Rejoice, 
thou art free ! ' So I sat me down on this crown of 
the world ; and, looking round to see nothing I feared, 
there, with the rude pipe of my making, I blew out 
the song of my heart ! " 

We appreciate Mr. Luffmann's exaltation, 
and are glad to know that he was happy ; but 
we are sorry that he could not see the indelicacy 
of printing such intimate heart-throbbings in a 
book and selling them for money. Reduced 
one-half, the work would be increased in value. 

GEORGE G. BROWNELL. 



VEGETARIAN BIOLOGY.* 

It is a pleasant duty devolving upon the 
writer to record in these columns from time to 
time the passing of a biological " paradoxer," 
one who thinks on a different plane from the 
rest of mankind, and as a result of this intel- 
lectual isolation and independence is able to 
solve the deepest problems of nature and life 
with a deftness and circumstance that can but 
compel the admiration of ordinary mortals. 
Each of these " paradoxing " individuals has 
his own particular brand of metaphysical eye- 
water, which when properly applied enables us 
to see not only how stupid we have previously 
been, but also how really simple an affair the 
universe is if only one's vision has the pre- 
scribed angle and acuteness. A worthy successor 
to the spiral philosopher and the vociferously 
immoral Italian who felt it his duty to point 
the way to the " unenlightables " is to be found 
in Mr. Hermann Reinheimer, the author of a 
book entitled " Survival and Reproduction." 

With the customary caution of its kind, the 
book starts off in a perfectly orthodox, if some- 
what obscure, fashion. For quite thirty pages 
the reader is led along through the mazes of 
a metaphysical discussion of evolution, with 
nothing in particular to excite his interest or 
arouse his suspicions, unless the very prosiness 
and orthodoxy of it has that effect. Then, no 
longer to be restrained, the cat pops suddenly 
out of the bag, in this wise : " It also follows 
that animals, instead of wasting time and energy 
in fighting and depredation, or in the search 
for ' hosts ' for parasitic indulgences, might by 
furthering the interests of a bountiful vegeta- 



* SURVIVAL AND REPRODUCTION. A New Biological Out- 
look. By Hermann Reinheimer. London : J. M. Watkins. 



tion almost indefinitely multiply their means of 
sustenance while at the same time justifying 
and ennobling their existence." This brilliant 
and profound thought strikes the keynote of 
the book. The author, like all good paradoxers, 
takes himself and his vegetarian philosophy 
most seriously, but this is a difficult thing for 
anyone else to accomplish. Try as one will to 
be properly respectful and serious about so 
weighty a matter, there creeps into his mind 
the notion of a large and hungry lion " justify- 
ing and ennobling his existence " by cultivat- 
ing, with the immortal Sairey, a taste for 
" cowcumbers." 

In Part II. of the book the author relates 
his peculiar ideas respecting nutrition to the 
different modes of reproduction observed in 
the organic world. The general upshot of the 
discussion is that : " Throughout we found it 
confirmed that the occurrence of antithetic 
developments is due to dysteleological function, 
i.e., physiological transgression." This may 
not be a particularly illuminating conclusion as 
it stands, but interpreted it is to be understood 
to mean that one should be a vegetarian. A 
really enormous mass of facts and speculations 
culled from recent and classical biological lit- 
erature is by truly Procrustean methods worked 
into the book. The breadth of the author's 
reading, and the zeal and diligence which have 
gone into the preparation of the volume are 
remarkable, and would, in a better cause, be 
worthy of all praise. But after all the marshal- 
ling of the heavy artillery of technical scientific 
data and hypotheses is over, the case reminds 
one of Eugene Field's "Militiaman": 
" He revels in scenes of blood and gore, 
Where the terrible bomb is hurled; 
He slaughters the foe and calls for more, 
And he wears his mustache curled." 

RAYMOND PEARL. 



A VOLUME of " Essays in American History," pub- 
lished by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., is dedicated to 
Professor Frederick Jackson Turner upon the occasion 
of his presidency of the American Historical Associa- 
tion. The volume is the work of ten men, all of whom 
were once numbered among Professor Turner's students 
at the University of Wisconsin, and has been written 
and collected "out of the love and respect of the 
authors for the scholar and friend to whom it is dedi- 
cated." The writers of these essays (one of them a 
woman) all occupy at present chairs in American col- 
leges from Wellesley to Oregon, and from Wisconsin 
to Tulane, thus extending over the whole country the 
stimulating ideals and methods of the man who supplied 
them with inspiration. The volume exhibits high 
qualities of scholarship, and embodies the results of 
several important original investigations. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



129 



BRIEFS ON XEW BOOKS. 



A near view of A two-volume work, extending to 
a great inventor nearly a thousand pages, has been 
at hi* work. prepared by Mr. Frank Lewis Dyer 
and Mr. Thomas Commerford Martin on " Edison, 
his Life and Inventions " (Harper). Mr. Dyer is 
connected as general counsel with the Edison Lab- 
oratory, and Mr. Martin was at one time president 
of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. 
Well qualified for the task which they undertook, 
they have been ably assisted in its execution by 
" many loyal associates," as their preface explains, 
and have had the express sanction and the personal 
aid of the inventor himself and his wife. In fact, 
Mr. Edison's Imprimatur is prefixed to the work, 
and it may safely be received as an authoritative, 
even though not, while its subject still lives, as the 
" definitive " or final biography which its authors 
say they have designed it to be. At any rate, it is 
much fuller and, especially to scientists, more satis- 
factory than Mr. Francis Arthur Jones's similar 
work of three years ago. The history of the prin- 
cipal Edison inventions is set forth with a thorough 
understanding of technicalities, but in language 
not beyond the ordinary reader's comprehension. 
Naturally it is the inventor rather than the man 
that is the chief object of the writers' study and 
portrayal, though the touch of human nature is by 
no means wanting to their pages. One notable 
chapter, the last one in the book, is devoted to 
" The Social Side of Edison," and characteristic 
actions and utterances of his thickly sprinkle all 
the preceding chapters. What he has to say on the 
educational need of the hour is worth quoting, in 
part, as rather amusingly characteristic. " What 
we need," he declares, ''are men capable of doing 
work. I wouldn't give a penny for the ordinary 
college graduate, except those from the institutes of 
technology. Those coming up from the ranks are 
a darned sight better than the others. They are n't 
filled up with Latin philosophy, and the rest of that 
ninny stuff. ... In three or four centuries, when 
the country is settled, and commercialism is dimin- 
ished, there will be time for the literary men. At 
present we want engineers, industrial men, good 
business-like managers, and railroad men." An 
appendix contains, among other interesting details, 
a good description, with drawings, of the new 
Edison storage battery ; also a 28-page list of 
domestic patents taken out by the inventor, and a 
summary enumeration of his 1239 foreign patents. 
A full index concludes the work, and numerous 
illustrations, including portraits of Mr. Edison iu 
a variety of attitudes (not poses), are scattered 
through the volumes. Those who dislike ''Latin 
philosophy and the rest of that ninny stuff" will 
heartily enjoy this faithful account of one who, 
though not a Latin philosopher, is something of an 
American philosopher, in his way, as well as a 
marvellously gifted inventor. 



ana ** J. A. T. Lloyd's Two Russian 
Toittov compared Reformers : Ivan Turgenev, Leo 
and contracted. Tolstoy " (Lane) might just as well 
and perhaps better have been called " Two Russian 
Romancers," since it is rather more a study of their 
literary art than of their aims and methods in the 
way of reform. But any faithful interpretation of 
the two men, especially of Turgenev. must present 
them first and foremost as great writers, winning a 
hearing through the consummate mastery of their 
art far more than by the substance of their doctrines. 
How greatly the artist predominated over the re- 
former in the older man shows itself in his dying 
message to his " good and dear friend," with whom 
he was by temperament in perpetual discord, the 
recluse of Yasnaya Polyana. " I write to you before 
everything else," he says, "to tell you how happy 
I have been to be your contemporary, and to ex- 
press to you my last and immediate prayer. My 
friend, return to literature ! Reflect that this gift 
has come to you from the Source of all things." 
Contrasting the genius of the two authors, Mr. 
Lloyd points out, in apt phrase, that " if Tnrgenev 
may be described as a gourmet of life, Tolstoy may 
be described as a gourmand. Turgenev communi- 
cates the aroma of a half-forgotten scene ; Tolstoy 
lives it over again, reproducing the actual physical 
delight or pain that he had experienced in it." 
The book, divided into two unequal parts, discusses 
Tnrgenev in the first two-thirds of its 330 pages, 
and Tolstoy in the remaining third, following each 
author through a chronological survey of his works. 
From the title one might reasonably expect a rather 
more definite and detailed statement of the partic- 
ular reforms for which these two men stand, in the 
author's opinion ; and he might perhaps instructively 
have shown a stronger causal connection between 
early excesses, especially in Tolstoy's case, and 
later disgusts and weariness and inclinations toward 
asceticism. It is, however, a carefully studied and 
richly suggestive piece of work that the author has 
given us, and like Mr. Maude's notable biography 
of Tolstoy it has an especial and unforeseen timeli- 
ness. Portraits and Russian scenes fittingly illus- 
trate the book, which has also chronological outlines 
of the two men's lives and lists of their principal 
works. 

" The Japanese Empire and its 
on Java" Economic Condition " (imported by 

Scribner) is a translation from the 
French of M. Joseph D'Autremer, lecturer at the 
School of Oriental Languages, Paris. The vol- 
ume appears to have been intended to serve as a 
handbook of exact information about Japan its 
geography, topography, geology, race origins, gov- 
ernment, commerce, and art. Unfortunately the 
information given under these various heads is 
uneven in value ; the material in the several chap- 
ters is ill-arranged ; there are statements likely to 
mislead ; the author dogmatizes without giving evi- 
dence of profound investigation ; and the English 



130 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



translation reflects discredit upon the publishers. 
As typical specimens of the author's unsupported 
generalities the two following statements may be 
cited: "But from 660 B.C. . . . these different races 
have been replaced Iby numerous Malay peoples." 
"In spite of this shadow of Parliamentarianism 
[sic], it is clear that the political condition of Japan 
resembles in no respect what we call constitutional 
government." The chapters on art are an almost 
hopeless confusion of details ill-arranged and state- 
ments not carefully weighed. Useful sketches of the 
various art industries read like undigested material 
taken from note-books. Seven pages are devoted to 
lacquer ; whereas cloisonne* is dismissed in the fol- 
lowing two sentences : " This latter never attained 
in Japan the solid quality of Chinese cloisonne*, 
though it had greater elegance. At the present day 
Tokyo and Yokohama manufacture a great quantity 
of cloisonne* for exportation [sic] but little of it can 
be kept without deterioration." In regard to the 
beautiful Kutani and Satsuma wares the reader 
not otherwise instructed would carry away the im- 
pression that nothing is being done in these wares 
save to manufacture a great quantity of tawdry im- 
itations. No doubt it is true that Japanese ceramic 
art reached its zenith between 1750 and 1830 (see 
Chamberlain : " Things Japanese ") ; yet many ex- 
quisite pieces of Satsuma, Kutani, and cloisonne 
ware are still made to-day. As to the English of the 
book, one can excuse and even relish a slightly 
foreign flavor in translation, but there is no excuse 
for bad paragraphing and slipshod or unintelligible 
sentences. We are told that of the 19,000 foreign- 
ers in Japan, " 13,000 are Chinese and the others 
Asiatic." Of Kioto we are informed that "for 
more than a thousand years it has been [instead of 
was~\ the residence of the Emperors." The follow- 
ing is an example of careless sentence-structure: 
" A piece of boehmeria cloth is taken, which is cut 
according to the size of the article to be covered 
[with lacquer], care being taken to apply it in such 
a way that there is no fold, and covered with shesime 
urushi, so that it may be glued and secured in that 
condition." The treatment of Japan's industries 
and finances, in the last one hundred pages of the 
book, shows the writer at his best; the discussion 
is full, and appears to be based upon the latest and 
most trustworthy statistics, studied by one familiar 
with this phase of the general subject of his volume. 

Reminiscences The newly-published Reminiscences 
of a noted of Clara Novello open the gates into 

prima donna. & world of charm and romance . She 

was born in England in 1818, and died in Rome 
in 1908. She was one of the great singers of her 
time, brought up in the English traditions, especially 
noted for her renderings of Handel, and conspicuous 
for success in the elaborate music of the Italian opera 
in the resplendent days of Donizetti and Rossini. 
The latter illustrious master of the florid school 
was the close friend and adviser of the singer, as- 
sisted her in her early studies, and stood by her 



side at every turn in her career, when aid or en- 
couragement appeared desirable. She was a devotee 
of the Italian method and style ; she witnessed the 
struggles and triumphs of Wagner's extraordinary 
career ; but to the last she held out against the 
fascination and significance of the rising music 
drama. Thus she says in a section of her volume 
dated Fermo, Italy, 1886 : " My sisters, Mrs. Cow- 
den Clarke and Sabilla, left Genoa at the end of 
June for Switzerland, and later Bayreuth, to receive 
there a three days dose of Wagner's 'Parsifal,' 
etc., as a substitute for music. I don 't envy them ; 
Louis of Bavaria's end shows what sort of a mad- 
man it was who proclaimed Wagner a musician 
also the effects of Wagner." In the same connection 
we have the following : " So that very clever old 
Liszt is dead! You know what Rossini was found 
doing with his ' Pater Noster,' which was upside 
down on his pianoforte desk? To inquiries, Why 
so ? he replied, ' I 've been trying till now to make 
something of it right side up in vain, so I'm now 
going to try this way.' " Clara Novello belonged 
to a notable family of artists and musicians. Her 
father, Vincent Novello, was a gifted organist and 
one of the founders of the London Philharmonic 
Society. At the Novello home in London assembled 
the choice spirits of the age in art and literature. 
Shelley and Leigh Hunt and Lamb belong to her 
youthful days in her father's home, and Lamb has 
encircled her name with the lambent play of his 
wit and fancy. On the continent she was brought 
into association with the great of her period. She 
married an Italian nobleman, who stood high in 
the councils of his nation. They were both ardent 
upholders of the new order, and the leaders of 
United Italy were their friends. The world of 
music and the sister arts, of royalty, and of progress 
during the nineteenth century, passes before us in 
these womanly and sympathetic pages. There is 
included in the volume a memoir of the singer by 
Mr. Arthur D. Coleridge. Her high character, her 
disinterested devotion to her art, her deep appre- 
ciation of the important movements of thought and 
politics of her time (all but the Wagner innovations) 
shine through the book, to which the publishers 
(Longmans) have given a dignity of form appro- 
priate to the contents. 



magittrate in have held as a leasehold the port and 
Northern China, territory of Weihaiwei, on the Shan- 
tung peninsula, in North China. Up to the present 
time the settlement has been of little value save as 
a station for the China Squadron on its summer 
manoeuvres ; and eminent authorities still differ as 
to the political, strategic, and commercial possibili- 
ties of the place. But one very good result of the 
British occupation has just appeared, for it has per- 
mitted a well-trained and sympathetic English mag- 
istrate to gather material for a helpful study of a 
tiny part of the great Chinese Empire. Mr. R. F. 
Johnston, in his "Lion and Dragon in Northern 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



131 



China " ( Button), is more concerned with the dragon 
than with the lion. In his position as magistrate, 
corresponding to a " father-and-mother " official of 
the Chinese administration, he has had exceptional 
opportunities to know the people entrusted to his 
charge, and on his experiences and studies he has 
based a very interesting and at the same time 
scholarly book. The people, their customs and 
observances, their laws and institutions, their re- 
ligions and superstitions, are described with such 
sympathy for the native point of view that the im- 
pression is left with the reader that the Chinese 
residents of Weihaiwei have been very happily 
favored in their magistrate. The author thus con- 
cludes his discussion of present conditions : " It is 
difficult to say whether China stands at present in 
greater danger from her own over-enthusiastic re- 
volutionary reformers or from her well-meaning but 
somewhat ignorant foreign friends who are pressing 
her to accept Western civilization with all its poli- 
tical and social machinery and its entire religious 
and ethical equipment. If ever a State required skil- 
ful guidance and wise statesmanship, China needs 
them now : but wise statesmanship will not consist 
in tearing up all the old moral and religious sanc- 
tions that have been rooted in the hearts of the 
Chinese people through all the ages of their wonder- 
ful history." Some sixty well-chosen illustrations, 
a map of Weihaiwei, and a good index add to the 
usefulness of the volume. 



The history of California has been 
? 8"-ounded by a halo of romance and 
adventure, from the days of the dar- 
ing exploits of Drake and the devoted labors of the 
Franciscan priest, Junipero Serro, to those pioneers 
of " 40 " who braved the dangers of the Horn, the 
Isthmus, or the plains and sierras, in their eager rush 
to the land of gold. Indeed, there is even a savor 
of romance in the calculated narration of the exploits 
of the wizards of horticulture and of irrigation in the 
far West in the present day. The most striking 
incidents in the history of this land of great moun- 
tains, rugged coasts, appalling deserts, and giant 
forests are narrated in Mr. George Wharton James's 
account of the " Heroes of California " (Little, Brown 
& Co.). The author has selected for treatment some 
forty names famous in the annals of Californian 
exploration, settlement, and development, trap- 
pers, explorers, soldiers, pony-express riders, rail- 
road builders, inventors, scientists, judges, writers. 
Many of these names are of national or international 
repute : Kit Carson. Bishop Taylor, Clarence King, 
John Wesley, P. Powell, John Muir. Helen Hunt 
Jackson, H. H. Bancroft, Luther Burbank, Henry 
George, and Edward Markham. Heroism is justly 
interpreted by the author with latitude to include 
not only deeds of daring in times of danger, or amid 
the fastnesses of mountain and desert ; but likewise 
the achievements in other fields of endeavor, re- 
ligious, economic, industrial, scientific, and civic. He 
might well have included some mention of the seer 



who dreamed and wrought out during years of effort 
the foundations of higher education in California 
upon which its great State University has been 
built, Samuel W. Wiley. And it is strange that 
a book on this subject should omit the name of John 
C. Fremont. A considerable number of well-selected 
illustrations adorn this entertaining volume. 



Mr. Lang and In the perpetual running fight about 
the Homeric Homer, Mr. Andrew Lang has been 
controversy- f or 8O me years a most prominent 
champion. In his latest return to the fray, "The 
World of Homer " (Longmans), he lays about him in 
a very joyous and triumphant mood. His foemen 
are all those who hold, in some form or other, that 
"the Iliad is a mosaic produced by a long series of 
Ionian additions to an Achaean ' kernel.' " Against 
them he maintains that the Iliad is, in the main, 
the work of a single poet, as is shown by the unity 
of thought, temper, character and ethos " ; that it is 
" a work of one brief period, because it bears all the 
notes of one age, and is absolutely free from the 
most marked traits of religion, rites, society, and 
superstition that characterise the preceding ^Egean. 
and the later ' Dipylon,' Ionian, Archaic, and his- 
toric periods in Greek life and art." Homer is an 
Achaean poet, composing for Achaean auditors at 
a time when "the glow of ^gean (late Minoan, 
Mycenean) culture still flushed the sky." In support 
of his contention he writes nearly three hundred 
pages under such captions as " The Homeric World 
in War," " Homer and Ionia" " Bronze and Iron," 
" Burial and the Future Life," and " The Great 
Discrepancies." It goes without saying that the lit- 
erary touch is light and the argumentation serious. 
The present reviewer has long been in accord with 
Mr. Lang's principal views, while differing from 
him about many details ; but from friend and foe 
alike the book deserves attention. At the same time 
it is not to be recommended to any reader who 
takes little real interest in the protracted controver- 
sies about the Homeric poem. The volume is well 
illustrated, well printed, and substantially bound. 



Reminiscence, of approaches Mr. Joseph Fort 
Lincoln bv M* Newton s volume on "Lincoln and 
law-partner. Herndon " (The Torch Press) with 
caution, and something of suspicion, as probably 
an unnecessary book in an over- worked field ; but 
before long it takes hold of the reader, and he is 
glad to read it to the end. It is based on a series 
of letters written by Mr. Herndon to Theodore 
Parker, whom Herndon worshipped as his own 
inspirer in religion and his ideal of an orator and a 
teacher. These letters are very vivid, and describe 
political conditions in Illinois from 1854 to 1859 
in a wav to bring them before us as almost nothing 
else does. Naturally, the letters are full of Lincoln, 
whose law-partner Herndon was. Mr. Newton has 
grouped his comment about Lincoln in such a way 
that the book is reAly a political biography of him 



132 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



for the period named, and a very satisfying one. 
The work gives us the personality of Lincoln more 
clearly than most of the formal biographers are able 
to give it. Interesting also is the acquaintance that 
we get with Herndon, as in seeing Lincoln through 
his eyes we come to know Herndon himself ; and in 
spite of the slighting judgments of the biographers, 
we find him a man well worth knowing, and worthy 
to be the partner and intimate friend of Lincoln. 
The book is excellent in its mechanical form, as well 
as attractive in its contents. 

A freakish fancy is given a free 

Amusing foolery . -* o i_ i > 

in small rein in Mr. Stephen Leacock s 

fragments. "Literary Lapses" (Lane), a col- 

lection of half a hundred amusing trifles, evidently 
written with rapid pen and well adapted to even 
more rapid reading. A few of the titles of these 
mirthful sketches will indicate the nature of them 
all, " How to Live to be 200," " How to Avoid 
Getting Married," " Men Who have Shaved Me," 
" Hints to Travellers," " Society Chit-Chat," " On 
Collecting Things," "Borrowing a Match," "A 
Lesson in Fiction." Here is the author's sage 
advice to those tormented with fears of disease- 
germs and noxious bacilli: "If you see a bacilli, 
walk right up to it, and look it in the eye. If one 
flies into your room, strike at it with your hat or 
with a towel. Hit it as hard as you can between 
the neck and the thorax. It will soon get sick of 
that." One of the writer's most daring strokes is 
the creation of a Sherlock Holmes in the person of 
a Chinese laundry-man, who minutely describes 
the character and traces the history of a customer 
from an inspection of his weekly linen but proves 
in the end to be totally and ludicrously in error in 
his deductions. The book is full of smiles to those 
who approach it in a suitable frame of mind and 
not with too severe a determination to preserve their 
centre of gravity. 



NOTES. 



A new novel by Mr. Owen Wister, his first since 
" Lady Baltimore " appeared five years ago, is a wel- 
come Spring announcement of the Macmillan Co. 

Mr. Robert Hichens's psychical story, " The Dweller 
on the Threshold," will be issued in book form by the 
Century Co. upon the conclusion of its serial publication. 

What is said to be the first adequate history of pub- 
lishing and bookselling, from earliest times to the 
present, is promised by Messrs. Little, Brown, & Co. in 
Mr. Frank A. Mumby's "The Romance of Bookselling." 

A " Standard Handbook of Music," from the com- 
petent pen of Mr. George P. Upton, is announced by 
Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. The volume will cover 
all phases of the subject in brief yet comprehensive 
manner. 

A volume on " The Newer Spiritualism " by the 
late Frank Podmore is announced for publication this 
month by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. The same firm 
will also issue immediately Dr. fVernon L. Kellogg's 



" The Animals and Man," a study of the relations 
(biologic, economic, and hygienic) of the lower animals 
to man. 

Mr. Henry Bryan Binns, the author of well-known 
biographies of Lincoln and Whitman, has written a 
drama entitled " The Adventure," which is to be pro- 
duced in London at an early date. It will be published 
in book form this month by Mr. B. W. Huebsch. 

A volume of " Narratives of Early Carolina," edited 
by Mr. A. S. Snmlley, Jr., will be added this Spring to 
the series of " Original Narratives of Early American 
History," published by Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. 
The book will include some fifteen of the most impor- 
tant early first-hand accounts of the beginnings of 
settlement in the Carolinas. 

" Criminal Man according to the Classification of 
Cesare Lombroso," as summarized by his daughter, 
Gina Lombroso Ferrero, is announced by Messrs. Put- 
nam. The book has been in preparation for some time. 
Before his death Professor Lombroso wrote for it a 
preface, giving a brief description of the origin and 
development of criminal anthropology. 

In addition to Sir Sidney Colvin's definitive edition 
of Robert Louis Stevenson's correspondence which 
will contain a hundred and fifty new letters to be 
issued in May, we are to have a collection of Stevenson's 
essays that have not hitherto appeared in book form, 
except in the expensive " Edinburgh " and " Pentland " 
editions. The title of the volume is " Lay Morals, and 
Other Papers," and among the contents are " The 
Pentland Rising," "Father Damien," " The Young Chev- 
alier," "The Great North Road," and " Heathercat." 
In controlling copyrights of many of the best-known 
American writers, the Houghton Mifflin Co. are in a 
position of unusual advantage for preparing a superior 
set of school readers. This advantage they now intend 
to utilize, as evidenced by their announcement of the 
early publication of " The Riverside Readers." The 
editors of the series are Mr. James H. Van Sickle, 
Superintendent of Schools in Baltimore, Miss Wilhel- 
mina Seegmiller, Director of Art in the Indianapolis 
Public Schools, and Miss Frances Jenkins, Supervisor 
of Elementary Grades in Decatur, Illinois. 

The Letters and Journals of Charles Eliot Norton, 
a biographical record edited by his daughter, Miss 
Sara Norton, and Mr. M. A. De Wolfe Howe, is an- 
nounced as in preparation for publication (it is hoped 
in 1912) by Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Co. This work, 
which will comprise two volumes, may confidently be 
expected to be one of the most important biographical 
publications of recent years. Professor Norton's long 
and rich life and his close friendships with the foremost 
men of letters of the nineteenth century in both England 
and America promise that the work will be one of rare 
interest. 

The Oxford University Press will celebrate the Ter- 
centenary of the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible 
by issuing shortly a photographic reproduction of the 
Black Letter edition of 1611. Mr. Alfred W. Pollard 
will contribute a bibliographical introduction of upwards 
of fifty pages. The Press also announces a cheaper 
reprint in Roman type, page for page, of the editio 
princeps, similar to that published by the Oxford Uni- 
versity Press in 1833, the extraordinary accuracy of 
which, Mr. Pollard says, has been everywhere acknowl- 
edged. This volume will also contain Mr. Pollard's 
introduction. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



133 



IJST or XEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 60 titles, includes books 
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. 
The Life of Oliver Goldsmith. By Frank Frankfort Moore. 

Illustrated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo, 492 pages. E. P. 

Dntton & Co. $3.50 net. 
The Fate of Henry of Navarre. By John Bloundelle-Burton. 

Illustrated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo, 350 pages. John 

Lane Co. $4. net. 

The Liif e of Friedrlch Nietzsche. By Daniel Halevy ; trans- 
lated by J. M. Hone; with introduction by T. M. Kettle. 

With portrait, large 8vo, 368 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.50 net. 
Cecil Rhodes : His Private Life. By his private secretary, 

Philip Jourdan. Illustrated, large 8vo, 293 pages John Lane 

Co. $2.50 net. 
The Household of the Lafayettes. By Edith Sichel. With 

photogravure portrait, large 8vo, 354 pages. E. P. Dutton & 

Co. $2. net. 
A Senator of the Fifties : David C. Broderick of California. 

By Jeremiah Lynch. With portrait, 12mo, 246 pages. San 

Francisco: A. M. Robertson. $1.50. 

HISTORY. 

The Interpretation of History. By Max Nordau; trans- 
lated by M. A. Hamilton. 8vo, 419 pages. Moffat, Yard & 
Co. $2. net. 

The Political Development of Japan, 1867-1909. By George 
Etsujiro Uyehara. Large 8vo, 296 pages. E. P. Dutton & 
Co. $3. net. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 
Essays on Bussian Novelists. By William Lyon Phelps. 

With portrait, 12mo, 322 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. 
Interpreters of Life. By Archibald Henderson. With pho- 
togravure frontispiece, 8vo, 331 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. 
$1.50 net. 

Historical Manual of English Prosody. By George Saints- 
bury. 18 mo. 337 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.60 net. 

The Influence of Moliere on Restoration Comedy. By 
Dudley Howe Miles. 12mo, 272 pages. Macmillan Co. 
$1.50 net. 

The Complete Orations and Speeches of Henry W, 
Qrady. Edited by Edwin Dn Bois Shnrter. 12mo. 233 
pages. Austin, Texas : South- West Publishing Co. 
American Oratory of To-Day. Edited by Edwin Du Bois 
Shurter. 12mo, 406 pages. Austin, Texas : Sonth-West Pub- 
lishing Co. 

BOOKS OF VERSE. 

Sonnets. By Ferdinand Earle. 12mo, 87 pages. Mitchell 
Kennerley. $1.25 net. 

Poetical Favorites. Yours and Mine. Edited by Warren 
Snyder. 12mo, 454 pages. Wessels & Bissell Co. $1.25 net. 

Poems. By Muriel Rice. 12mo, 70 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. 
$1. net. 

Brandy wine Days: or. The Shepherd's Honr-Glass. By John 
Russell Hayes. Illustrated, 12mo, 228 pages. Philadelphia: 
Biddle Press. $1.50 net. 

California Sunshine, and Other Verses. By Grace Hibbard. 
With frontispiece in color, 16mo, 49 pages. San Francisco : 
A. M. Robertson. 75 cts. net. 

The Soul's Rubaiyat. By Amelia Woodward Truesdell. Illus- 
trated, 16mo, 31 pages. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson 
75 cts. 

FICTION. 

The New Machiavelli. By H. G. Wells. 12mo, 490 pages. 
Duffield & Co. $1.35 net. 

The Broad Highway. By Jeffery Farnol. 12mo, 518 pages. 
Little, Brown, & Co. $1.35 net. 

Basset: A Village Chronicle. By S. G. Tallentyre. 12mo, 
298 pages. Moffat, Yard & Co. $1.25 net. 

When God Laughs. By Jack London. 12mo, 319 pages. 
Macmillan Co. $1.50. 

The Bolted Door. By George Gibbs. Illustrated in color, etc., 
12mo, 34 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $1.25 net. 

The Andersons. By S. Macnaughtan. 12mo, 372 pages. 
E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.25 net. 

The Trail of a Tenderfoot. By Stephen Chalmers. Illus- 
trated, 12mo, 234 pages. Outing Publishing Co. $1.25 net. 

The Fire Opal. By Robert Fraser. 12mo, 311 pages. Edward 
J. Clode. $1.50. 



Paying the Piper. By Margaret Holmes Bates. With frontis- 
piece. 8vo, 344 paces. Broadway Publishing Co. $1.50. 

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. 

Behind the Screens in Japan: An Englishwoman's Impres- 
sions of Japan. By Evelyn Adam. I2mo, 277 pages. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. $1.50 net. 

We of the Never-Never. By Mrs. ..Eneas Gunn. Illustrated, 
12mo, 349 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 

Railroad Traffic and Rates. By Emory R. Johnson and 
Grover G. Hnebner. In 2 volumes, illustrated, large 8vo. 
" Appleton's Railway Series." D. Appleton & Co. $5. net! 

Public Ownership of Telephones on the Continent of 
Europe. By A. X. Holcombe. Large 8vo. 482 pages. " Har- 
vard Economic Studies." Hough ton Mifflin Co. $2. net. 

Social Adjustment. By Scott bearing. I2mo, 377 pages. 
Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. 

The New Nationalism. By Theodore Roosevelt ; with intro- 
duction by Ernest Hamlin Abbott. 12mo, 268 pages. New 
York : The Outlook Co. $1.50 net. 

Electric Railway Transportation : The Annals of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Political and Social Science. Edited by 
Emory R. Johnson. Large 8vo, 241 pages. Philadelphia : 
American Academy of Political and Social Science. Paper. 

American Commercial Legislation before 1789. By Albert 
Anthony Giesecke. 12mo, 166 pages. University of Penn- 
sylvania. 

RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 
Unitarian Thought. By Ephraim Emerton. 12mo, 309 pages 

Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. 
The Code of the Spirit : An Interpretation of the Decalogue. 

By Wilford L. Hoopes. 12mo, 154 pages. Sherman, French 

&Co. 
The Seekers. By Jesse E. Sampler ; with introduction by 

Professor Josiah Royce. 12mo. 302 pages. Mitchell Ken- 
nerley. $1.25 net. 
Philosophic de la Religion. By J. J. Gourd : with preface 

by M. Emile Bontroux. 8vo, 311 pages. " Bibliotheque de 

Philosophic Contemporaine." Papis: Felix Alcan. Paper. 
The Coming Creed. By Parley Paul Womer. I2mo, 88 pages 

Sherman. French & Co. 80 cts. net. 
History of New Testament Criticism. By F. C. Conybeare 

Illustrated, 16mo, 192 pages. " A History of the Sciences " 

G. P. Putnam's Sons. 75 cts. net. 
The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity. By 

Charles Foster Kent. 12mo, 157 pages. " Modern Sunday 

School Manuals." Eaton and Mains. 75 cts. net. 
Israel Lo Ammi. A Twentieth Century Narrative. By Mrs. 

Ida M. Nnngasser. I2mo, 75 pages. Broadway Publishing 

Co. 75 cts. 

NATURE AND SCIENCE. 
The Silva of California. By Willis Linn Jepson. Illustrated 

4to, 479 pages. " Memoirs of the University of California " 

Berkeley University Press. Paper. 
What Nature Is: An Outline of Scientific Naturalism By 

Charles Kendall Franklin. I2mo. 74 pages. Sherman 

French & Co. 75 cts. net. 

History of Anthropology. By Alfred C. Haddon. Illus- 
trated. 16mo, 206 pages. " A History of the Sciences " 

G. P. Putnam's Sons. 75 cts. net. 
Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

Institution, 1909. Large 8vo, 751 pages. Washington 

Government Fruiting Office. 

ART 
The Book of Decorative Furniture: Its Form, Colour and 

History. By Edwin Foley. In 2 volumes, illustrated in color. 

etc.. 4to, 427 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. Per set, $5. net. 
The Family House. By Charles Francis Osborne. Illustrated 

12mo, 236 pages. Penn Publishing Co. $1. net. 
Arts-Crafts Lamps. By John D. Adams. Illustrated. 16mo 

87 pages. Chicago : Popular Mechanics Co. 

HEALTH AND HYGIENE. 

Rural Hygiene. By Henry N. Ogden. I2mo, 434 pages 
" Rural Science Series." Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. 

Education in Sexual Physiology and Hygiene: A Physi- 
cian's Message. By Philip Zenner. Second edition ; 16mo, 
125 pages. Cincinnati : Robert Clark Co. $1. net. 

Woman and Marriage. By Margaret Stephens : with preface 
by Dr. Mary Scharlieb. and introduction by Mrs. S. A. Bar- 
nett. 12mo, 294 pages. Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1. net. 



134 



THE DIAL 



[Feb. 16, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

Blatter and Memory. By Henri Bergson: translated by 
Nancy Margaret Paul and W. Scott Palmer. Large 8vo, 
337 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.75 net. 

Motion Study : A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the 
the Layman. By Frank B. Gilbreth, with introduction by 
Robert Thurston Kent. 8vo, 32 pages. New York : D. 
Van Nostrand Co. $2. net. 

Manual of Library Bookbinding-, Practical and Historical. 
By Henry T. Coutts and George A. Stephen ; with introduc- 
tion by Douglas Cockerell. Illustrated. 12mo, 251 pages. 
London: Libraco Limited. 

Practical Graphology ; or, the Science of Reading Character 
through Handwriting. By Louise Rice. Large 8vo, 255 
pages. Chicago : The Library Shelf . $1.50 net. 

Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Edited 
by Frederick Webb Hodge. Part II. Illustrated, large 8vo, 
1221 pages. Washington : Government Printing Office. 

A NEW BOOK by CHARLES ZUEBLIN 

DEMOCRACY AND THE OVERMAN 

As keen, as readable, as illuminating as " The Religion of a 

Democrat." 
Uniformly bound, each, $1.00 net ; postpaid, $1.10. 

B. W. HUEBSCH, PUBLISHER, NEW YORK 

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BOUGHT FOR GASH 

HAVE you any old letters, manuscripts, or documents of the 
Presidents of the United States, Signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, Revolutionary Generals, or Celebrated Authors, 
Poets, or Statesmen, English or American ? I will pay you CASH 
for them. Write me at once or send letters to me for inspection. A 
safe and immediate return guaranteed if my offer is not accepted . 

P. F. MADIGAN, 1 East 45th Street, NEW YORK 

APmvATE gentleman forming a Col- 
lection of Autograph Letters of cele- 
brated personages, desires correspondence 
with those who may have such letters and 
will dispose of them. Dealers will not reply. 
Good prices paid for good specimens. 

HENRI BORNOT 

9th FLOOR, 28 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



1 



Etched Portraits of 
Famous Americans 

By JACQUES REICH 

17 subjects from authentic sources. 

$20.00 to $50.00. ZJ 

Etched Portraits of 
Famous Authors r 

10 subjects. $6.00 to $25.00 each. 



I 



Idea I for the Home or School Library 

Arrangements for private plates may be made by mail. C 
Send for descriptive Price List. 4 

JACQUES REICH ^W^RK F 

irnrr 



F. M. HOLLY 

Authors' and Publishers' Representative 
Circulars sent upon request. 156 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK . 

THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION 

Established in 1880. LETTERS OP CRITICISM. EXPERT 
REVISION OP MSS. Advice as to publication. Addresl 
DR. TITUS M. COAN, 70 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY 

STUDY and PRACTICE of FRENCH in Four Parts 

L. C. BONAMB, Author and Publisher, 1930 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 
' Well-graded series for Preparatory Schools and Colleges. No time 
wasted in superficial or mechanical work. French Text: Numerous 
exercises in conversation, translation, composition. Part I. (60 cts. ): 
Primary grade; thorough drill in Pronunciation. Part II. (90 cts.): 
Intermediate grade ; Essentials of Grammar; 4th edition, revised, with 
Vocabulary; most carefully graded. Part III. ($1.00): Composition, 
Idioms, Syntax ; meets requirements for admission to college. Part I V. 
(35c. ) : handbook of Pronunciation for advanced grade ; concise and com- 
prehensive.~/Se< to teachers for examination, with a view to introduction. 

THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES 

FOR USE IN HIGH SCHOOLS 

THE STUDY OF IVANHOE. Maps, plans, topics for study, 
references. Special price for use in classes. 26 cents net ; 
single copies, 50 cents. Also, The Study of Henry Esmond. 
THE STUDY OF FOUR IDYLLS. College entrance require- 
ments, notes and topics for high school students. Price, for 
use in classes, 1 5 cents net ; single copies, 25 cents. 

List for college classes sent on request. Address 
H. A. DAVIDSON, THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES, CAMBRIDGE, MASS 



AUTHORS 

wishing manuscripts placed without reading fee, address 

LaTOUCHE HANCOCK, 134 W, 37th St., New York City 



>f Mttvtst to 



The books advertised and reviewed in this 
magazine can be purchased from us at 
advantageous prices by 



public ^libraries, 
Colleger anD 



In addition to these books we have an excep- 
tionally large stock of the books of all pub- 
lishers a more complete assortment than 
can be found on the shelves of any other 
bookstore in the United States. We solicit 
orders and correspondence from libraries. 



A. C. McCLURG & CO. 



CHICAGO 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



135 



AC r'DUrrT HOWARD SUTHERLAND 
Ur UKLLLL $1.00. By Mail $1.09 

Second Series AN EXQUISITE GIFT BOOK 

DESMOND FITZGERALD, 156 5th Ave., New York 

ALL OUT- OP- PRINT BOOKS SUPPLIED, 

no matter on what subject. Write us. We can eel 
you any book ever published. Please state wants. Catalogue free. 

BAKER'S GREAT BOOK SHOP, 14-16 Bright St., BIRMINGHAM, EKO. 



LUZAC & CO. 

46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET : : LONDON. W.C 

MAKE A SPECIALTY OP 

ORIENTAL LITERATURE, RELIGION, ETC. 

Catalogues issued periodically of new and second-hand books 
which are sent gratis on application! 



A Portrait Catalogue 



Containing 23 Portraits 
of Authors will be sent 
FREE ON REQUEST 

This CATALOGUE contains a full list of titles to date. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 East 17th St., NEW YORK 



SPECIALIST IN 
Railroad, Canal, and Financial Literature 

Large stock of books and pamphlets on these subjects. 

DIXIE BOOK SHOP, 41 Liberty St., New York 

FOR BOOKS hard to find, and for 
ANY BOOKS, recent or old 

WRITE TO 

E. W. Johnson, Dealer in New and Old Books 

121 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 



Send for New Catalogue 
of Good Book* 



GOOD BOOKS 

Purchased 



LIBRARIANS 

Ready March 1, 1911 

OUR NEW CATALOGUE 

Embracing 1000 titles of choice recent fiction, and 250 
select titles of reference, law, science, history, sociology, 
etc. You send us a postal and we will gladly mail you 
the catalogue. 

COX BOOK CO., 257 West 125th St., New York 



The next great issue before the American people. President Taft. 

IMPORT AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM 

By NEWTON MANN 

Author of " The Evolution of a Great Literature." 
" Mr. Mann is an author of large mental grasp and unusual judicial 
balance. He comes to the subject without prejudice, and presents it 
in scholarly yet simple terms." Zion's Herald. " Probably the fair- 
est, most candid, most deliberate attempt available to find the ethical 
import of this movement." JKNKIN LLOYD JOKES, Ph.D., Chicago. 
" If we had to learn of historic, contemporary, and prophetic Social- 
ism through one book only, we know of none other which so clearly or 
attractively presents it. " Boston Common. 

Cloth, 336 pp., $1.50 net, postage 12 cents. 
JAMES H. WEST CO. PUBLISHERS BOSTON 



LIBRARY ORDERS 

/""^UR facilities for promptly and completely filling 
^^ orders from public libraries are unexcelled. Our 
location in the publishing 1 center of the country en- 
ables us to secure immediately any book not in our 
very large stock. Our prices will be found to be the 
lowest for all parts of the United States. 

Jteqitetts for Quotations Receive Prompt Attention. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

WHOLESALE DEALERS IN THE 
BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 

33-37 EAST 17th STREET, NEW YORK CITY 



Libraries, Collections of Books, 

and Autograph Letters Purchased 



LEXINGTON BOOK SHOP 

130 East 59th Street, New York City 



SEND YOX7B "WANTS" TO 

WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 

Publishers, Booksellers, Stationers, Printers 
851-853 SIXTH AVE. (Cor. 48th St.), NEW YORK 


ALL BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 


Including 

FRENCH 

SPANISH. ITALIAN, 
GERMAN AND OTHEB 
FOREIGN 

BOOKS 


Including 

MEDICAL 

books and works concerning 
HORSES, CATTLE, DOGS 

and other Domestic 
Animals 


Special facilities for supplying Schools, Colleges and 
Libraries. Catalogues on Application. 



Our Bargain Catalogs 

ARE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION 



A customer ivritet : " Please quote me prices ; I find it 
costly not to have communicated with you before 
purchasing." 

"A Catalog of Reference Book* offered from 25 to 60 
per cent. Discount. ' ' 

A Catalog of Book* Relating to American History. 

A Catalog of Art Book*. 

A Catalog of Standard Set*. 

ONE OR ALL, MAILED ON REQUEST 
Quotations Made on Special Items on Request 



The H. R. Huntting Co. 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



136 THE DIAL [Feb. 16, 1911. 

Henry Holt & Company's New Books 

Published at [1|t^IlI^^I|^d|^^^^Sf[r Postage on net books 

34 W. 33d St., New York llm^^^C^^^lmil *% additional 

Remain Holland's JEAN-CHRISTOPHE 

Dawn Morning Youth Revolt Translated by Gilbert Canaan 600pp. $1.50 net. 

Though the remarkable portrayal of a great musician is the main attraction, love, riot, and violent death have their part in it. 
Though this volume contains the first four of the French edition, it is not longer than some other well-known novels of the day. 
The Dial : " Clearly one of the most vital and significant works of fiction that our age has produced." 
Springfield Republican : " A book as big, as elemental, as original as though the art of fiction began to-day." 

Ostwald's NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 

Revised by the author and translated by THOMAS SELTZER. $1.00 net. 

Hartford Coarant: " One of the rare experts who on occasion is not ashamed to say : I don't know . . . wonderfully condensed 

and clear. . . . One cannot read much less study this little treatise without coming to a more orderly comprehension of 

his own, and of the world's knowledge." . 

Boston Transcript: " Gives a brief survey of all the sciences . . . treating almost every theme which concerns life. . . . The 

author everywhere holds fast to fact and experience . . . keeps his feet on the earth, while he maintains the open mind, ready 

for truth, but never satisfied with mere theory." 

Novicow's WAR AND ITS ALLEGED BENEFITS 

By the Vice-President of the International Institute of Sociology. Translated by THOMAS SELTZER. 16mo. $1.00 net. 
M. Novicow already has a great reputation abroad. His brief introduction in its entirety, is as follows : 

" War has its very convinced advocates, who attribute numerous benefits to it. The opinion of the apologists of brute force 
should be examined with the utmost care. They should be combated with an energy proportional to the evils they produce. 
" We shall consider these opinions one by one to show how little they can withstand criticism, how they fall, not only before 
sound reasoning, but even before the mere say-so of common sense." 

Frank Podmore's THE NEWER SPIRITUALISM 

Mr. Podmore essays to give a complete account of the recent evidence published by the Society of Psychical Research and its 
bearing upon the hypothesis of a life after death. He also discusses the physical phenomena of Eusapia Palladino, but gives 
the most attention to messages received through trance and automatic writing purporting to come from the spirit of the dead. 
Demy 8vo. $2.75 net. 

W. J. Henderson's SOME FORERUNNERS OF ITALIAN OPERA 

By the author of " Richard Wagner, His Life and Dramas," " Modern Musical Drift," etc. 

A striking new book on the seed whence Grand Opera sprang, by the brilliant musical critic of the New York Sun. Probable 

price, $1.25 net. {February 26th, ) 

F. A. Braun's MARGARET FULLER AND GOETHE 

Among other things, Dr. Braun considers her influence on the great men about her, her true relation to Transcendentalism 
and to Goethe, who called out her inner life and whose doctrines she adopted and taught, her complete religious credo and 
the body of her interesting and comprehensive criticisms of Goethe. $1.35 net. 

HALF A HUNDRED HERO TALES of Ulysses and the Men of Old 

Edited by FRANCIS STORR. With illustrations by FBANK C. PAPE. 

The Greek and Roman mythological heroes whose stories are here collected are not covered in any other one volume. There 

is a lightness of touch usually wanting in books of this character. Large 12mo. $1.35 net. 

TURNER ESSAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Dedicated to Frederick Jackson Turner, on the Occasion of His Presidency of the American Historical Association, 1909-1910, 
and written by his former pupils. " Some Activities of the Congregational Church West of the Mississippi," by Lois Kimball 
Mathews; "Oregon Pioneers and American Diplomacy," by Joseph Schafer; "Some Problems of the Northwest in 1779," by 
James Alton James; "Kansas," by Carl Lotus Becker; "Federalism and the West," by Homer C. Hockett; "Independent 
Parties in the Western States, 1873-1876," by Solon Justus Buck; "Virginia and the Presidential Succession, 1840-1844," by 
Charles Henry Ambler ; " The Southern Whigs, 1834-1854," by Ulrich Bonnell Phillips ; " The Beginnings of Spanish-American 
Diplomacy," by William Spence Robertson ; " Some Notee on the Study of South American History," by Paul Samuel Reinsch. 
293 pp. 8vo. $1.50 net. 

STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 

In Honor of Professor James Morgan Hart of Cornell University Upon the Passing of his Seventieth Birthday. The eighteen 
contributions making up this volume are all by former students of Professor Hart, most of whom are now themselves teaching 
in American Universities. $2.00 net. 

THB DIAL PRESS, PINE ARTS BUILDING, CHICAGO. 



THE DIAL 

<A SEMI-MONTHLY JOURNAL OF 

If it*rarn Criticism, gisrussion, antr Jttformaiion 



EDITED BY \ Volume L. 

FRANCIS F. BROWNE I A"o. 593. 



CHICAGO, MABCgJ, 1911. 



10 ett. a copy. J FINE ABTS BUILDING 
J*. a year. \ 203 Michigan Blvd. 





THE LATEST BOpKS 

'*i\\ <S&? 

Robinetta 

By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 

MARY and JANE FINDLATER and ALLAX McAULAY, the collaborators of that charming story, 

"THE AFFAIR AT THE INN" 

Robinetta is a young American girl who is left a widow at an early age and goes to England, where she 
plays havoc with the hearts of the Britons, old and young. The story sparkles with humor, and possesses 
as well a quiet charm. It is an unusually readable romance. With frontispiece in color. 

$1.10 net. Postage 9 cents. 

Yosemite Trails 



Cathedrals of Spain 

By JOHN A. GADE 

An admirable account of the great cathedrals of Sala- 
manca, Burgos, Avila, Leon, Segovia, Seville, and 
Granada. Illustrated. $5.00 net. Postpaid $5.30. 

The Soul of the Indian 

By CHARLES A. EASTMAN 

An eloquent presentation of the Indian's point of view, 

his love, his philosophy, his religion. With frontispiece. 

$ 1.00 net. Postpaid $1.08. 



By J. SMEATON CHASE 

An ideal guide book for the tourist in the Yosemite. 
Illustrated from photographs. 

$S.OO net. Postpaid $2.20. 

The Face of the Fields 

By DALLAS LORE SHARP 

These papers by one of the leading nature-writers in- 
clude such attractive topics as " Turtle Eggs for 
Agassiz," " The Scarcity of Skunks," etc. 

$1.25 net. Postage 12 cents. 



Reminiscences of the Geneva Tribunal By FRANK w. HACKETT 

Mr. Hackett was present throughout the sessions of the court as private secretary to Caleb Cnshing, the senior 
American counsel. He has also had access to the state papers and records. $2.00 net. Postpaid $2.14. 



A Year in a Coal Mine 

By JOSEPH HUSBAND 

A wonderful human document describing everything 
that happens in a coal mine. With frontispiece por- 
trait. $1.25 net. Postpaid $1.37. 



A Roman Wit By PAUL NIXON 

Epigrams and other quaint and humorous verse trans- 
lated from the Latin of Martial into picturesque English. 
$ 1.00 net. Postpaid $1.07. 

France and the American Revolution By JAMES BRECK PERKINS 

An admirably written and authoritative account of the important part France played in the American Revolution, 
by the author of " France Under the Regency,*' etc. $2.00 net. Postage 17 cents. 

Palestine and its Transformation By ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON 

At once an entertaining book of travel and an authoritative scientific account of the geographical features of the 
Holy Land. Fully illustrated. f2.00 net. Postage 15 cents. 

NEW NOVELS 
People of Popham By the author of "The Professional Aunt" 

The End of a Song By the author of "Through Welsh Doorways' 

The Contessa's Sister 



MARY C. E. WEMYSS 
JEANNETTE MARKS 
By GARDNER TEALL 



HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



PUBLISHERS 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 



138 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



PUTNAM'S SPRING BOOKS 

WHY WAR MUST CEASE! 

The Great Illusion 

A Study of the Relation of Military Power in Nations to 
Their Economic and Social Advantages 

By NORMAN ANGELL 

400 pages. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

" Mr. Angell throws into the dust bin the worn-out theories, the axioms of statecraft, the shib- 
boleths of diplomats, the mouthings of politicastros as to the necessity for war. . . . Not to speak 
of it flamboyantly, this work is to war and to the spirit of the war god the modern Mene, Mene. 
Tekel, Upharsin, the flamingly prophetic handwriting on the wall for all captains of whatsoever 
sort who by means of war would keep humanity frightened, brutalized, enslaved, and impover- 
ished." St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 

The book is being published simultaneously in the United States, England, 
France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Holland, Italy, Sweden, and Japan. 

Send for Circular 



The Clipper Ship Era 

By ARTHUR H. CLARK 

An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper 
Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews. 

400 pages. 39 illustrations. $2.00 net. 

The Clipper Ship Era began in 1843 as a result of 
the growing demand for a more rapid delivery of 
tea from China, and the memorable years from 
1843 to 1869 form one of the most important and 
interesting periods of maritime history. 

In Captain Clark's fascinating narrative, told in 
an attractive manner by an expert thorough in his 
subject, we see the stately, frigate-built "Indiaman," 
with her batteries of guns and the hammocks stowed 
in nettings, disappear, and her place taken by the swift 
China, California, and Australian clippers, which in 
their turn, after a long and gallant contest, at last 
vanish before the advancing power of steam. 

Send for Circular 



Schools of Painting 

By MARY INNES 

Edited, with a chapter on Schools of Painting in Amer- 
ica, and certain further additional material by 
CHARLES DE KAY. 

8vo. 106 illustrations. $2.50 net. 

This book offers a general view of the development 
of painting in Europe from the first century A.D. 
to the beginning of the nineteenth. It aims at 
supplying an historical background to the art move- 
ments in various countries, so that the influence of 
one school upon another may be rightly judged. 
A brief biography is given of the prominent paint- 
ers in each school, with a description of their most 
famous pictures and an appreciation of their work. 
It is well illustrated with characteristic examples 
of each school, and each painter of note. 



Behind the Screens in Japan 

. An Englishman's Impressions 

By EVELYN ADAM Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The book is no surface picture of Japanese life, but a penetrating study of the country and its 
people based on a long residence in the land of the cherry blossom. It pierces the thin coat of 
modernism with which the little brown people of the East have industriously overlaid their ancient 
customs, and gives an unvarnished account of the sub-surface aspects of Japanese life and char- 
acter. Every page of the book vibrates with life and scarcely one but has a spice of humor. 

Send for New Illustrated Catalogue 



PUBLISHED 
BY 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK 
AND LONDON 



1911.]. 



139 



PUTNAM'S SPRING BOOKS 

Love and Marriage 

By ELLEN KEY 

Author of " The Century of the Child," etc. 

With a Critical and Biographical Introduction by HAVELOCK ELLIS 

Crown 800. $1.50 net. 

In Love and Marriage, the veteran Swedish reformer attacks problems the most vital to the 
welfare of the human race, problems which have throughout the centuries engaged the attention 
of leaders of thought. 

Whether or not the reader be prepared to accept the conclusions and recommendations of the 
Swedish thinker, he must recognize that these conclusions represent the result of painstaking and 
scholarly thought and investigation. Daring and iconoclastic as they may be, the views of Ellen 
Key are presented with a calmness and philosophy of method that is absolutely free from any trace 
of sensationalism. The book which is being distributed in half a dozen languages to a world's 
public, must be accepted as a most important contribution to philosophic thought. 



A Short History of 
Women's Rights 

From the Days of Augustus to the 
Present Time 

By EUGENE A. HECKER 
Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The most significant chapters, and those which 
have an especially vital interest, are devoted to 
the growth of women's rights in England and in 
America, the modifications made throughout the 
centuries in the property rights of women, in laws 
and customs affecting marriage and divorce, etc. 
Much emphasis is laid on her acquisition of more 
extensive educational privileges, on her participa- 
tion in the vocations of men, and on her efforts to 
attain the right to vote and to hold public office. 



The Authorized Version of the 
Bible and Its Influence 

By ALBERT S. COOK 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in 

Yale University. 
Crown 8vo. $1.00 net. 

Prof. Albert S. Cook of Yale University is one of 
the few American scholars who up to the present 
have been asked to contribute chapters to The 
Cambridge History of English Literature. His con- 
tribution was a very significant one and has been 
widely extolled for its sound scholarship and its 
effective presentation. A few changes have been 
made, and certain passages, retrenched from the 
MS. by the editors of The Cambridge History of 
English Literature to adapt it to the limits of the 
assigned space, are in the present reprint restored. 



Criminal Man 



According to the Classification of CESARE LOMBROSO 

Briefly summarized by his daughter, GINA LOMBROSO FERRERO 
Crown 8vo. Probable price, $1.50 net. 

By the death of Professor Cesare Lombroso in the fall of 1909 the world lost a very remarkable 
man, to whom posterity will, perhaps, assign an eminence even greater than that conceded by his 
contemporaries. Until he broke in upon the barren, abstract discussion of crime and its causes 
with his daring paradoxes, the nature of the criminal and his inclination to crime was only vaguely 
understood. Few have done more than he to put an end to the delusions which long obstructed 
sensible treatment of the criminal classes. 

"No slight significance, is, therefore, attached to this summary by his daughter Gina Lombroso 
Ferrero, the wife of the eminent historian, Guglielmo Ferrero. 

Send for New Illustrated Catalogue 



PUBLISHED 
BY 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK 
AND LONDON 



140 



[March 1, 



THE ROMANCE OF FIGURES 

In the current number of THE OPEN COURT 
[February, 1911], George Bruce Halsted, writing on 
the ' Foundation and Technic of Arithmetic,' pre- 
sents briefly the wonderful story of the cipher. 
Men struggled through centuries of intelligence with 
cumbersome number notation. At first five men in 
a row to count 10,000 : ten fingers raised by the 
first, one by the second ; ten raised again by the first, 
and two by the second ; ten raised by the second, 
then one by the third, and thus to one finger of the 
fifth man, equaling 10,000. 

"Then the abacus with pebbles to represent the 
fingers and a row of grooves for the row of men. 
Centuries of intellect using the decimal system, but 
struggling with it because unable to comprehend 
the possibility of the cipher to indicate position in 
the row of men or in the grooves of the abacus ; 
centuries of struggling with other symbols, adopting 
Hindoo numerals, but failing to find a character 
which would indicate ' nothing ' to indicate that 
a position was empty. 'A Hindoo genius ' created 
zero. Hindoo numerals have been traced back to 
the early part of the third century B.C. 

" ' But,' writes Mr. Halsted ' a whole millennium 
was yet to pass before the creation of the most 
useful symbol in the world, the naught, the zero, a 
sign for nothing, a mark for the absence of quantity, 
the cipher whose first known use in a document is in 
738 A.D. This little ellipse, picture for airy nothing, 
is an indispensable cornerstone of modern civiliza- 
tion. It is an Ariel lending magic powers of com- 
putation, promoting our kindergarten babies at once 
to an equality with Caesar, Plato, or Paul in matters 
arithmetical. This giving to airy nothing not merely 
a local habitation and a name, but a picture, a symbol, 
is characteristic of the Hindoo race whence it sprang. 
It is like coining Nirvana into dynamos.' 

" The Arabs, taking the symbol, called it cifr 
' empty.' 

" Our moderns are making romance out of arith- 
metic." Chicago Tribune (Feb. 9, 1911). 

THE OPEN COURT 

PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Publishers and Importers of 
Standard Works of Science, 
Philosophy, and the History of 
Religion, Ancient and Modern 



Founded in 1887 by E. C. HEGELER, for the purpose of 
establishing religion upon a scientific basis. 

Send for complete Catalogue 

378-388 Wabash Ave., CHICAGO, ILL. 



$1.00 a year 



Single copy 10 cents 



THE OPEN COURT 

An Illustrated Monthly Magazine 

Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of 

Science, and the Extension of the Religious 

Parliament Idea 

Without animosity to any of the established creeds 
of the world, THE OPEN COURT stands for 
conservative progress based on the most radical 
thought and fearless investigation. It is intended 
that it shall be absolutely trustworthy as to state- 
ments of fact, all of which are intended to serve the 
same purpose a reformation of religious life on 
the basis of science. 

A fair impression of the work of THE OPEN 
COURT may be obtained from the Twenty Year 
Index, recently published. Sent free on request to 
readers of this advertisement. 



$2.00 a year 



Single copy 60 cents 



THE MONIST 

A Quarterly Magazine 
Devoted to the Philosophy of Science 

"I have a complete file of THE MONIST in 
bound volumes and consider it the best general 
library of philosophy a student can own." 

E. R. BLACK WELL (St. Andrews). 

An index covering seventeen years of THE 

MONIST will be sent to any interested reader 

desiring to become acquainted with the work and 

the standing of its contributors. 



Special Subscription Offer 

THE MONIST, for one year .... $2.00 
THE OPEN COURT, for one year . i.oo 
Copy of Philosophy as a Science . .50 

$3-50 
Special Price for All .... $2.50 



The Open Court Publishing Company 

378-388 Wabash Avenue. Chicago 

Dear Sirs: 

Please find enclosed $2.50 for which please 
send me THE MONIST and THE OPEN COURT 
for one year, including complimentary copy of 
Philosophy as a Science. 

Yours very truly, 



Date- 



1911.] THE DIAL, 141 



The NEW ARNOLD BENNETT Book 

Denry the Audacious 

By ARNOLD BENNETT, author of "Clayhanger" 

C.Mr. Bennett's last novel, "CLAYHANGER," has been hailed 
by The North American as "A great novel. . . . So great that it 
throws into the shadow all the novels of the last decade" 

C. His new " Five Towns " book is in a lighter vein and shows 
a side of life less serious than some of his previous work. Denry, 
himself, is a person of prodigious boldness of conception and not 
likely to be forgotten. 

12mo. Net $1.35. 



READY SHORTLY 

THE NEW CHESTERTON BOOK 

Appreciations and Criticisms of the 
Works of Charles Dickens 

By G. K. CHESTERTON 

This new book by Chesterton is in his happiest vein and presents an 
unhackneyed view of a thorough admirer of Charles Dickens, who is also 
one of the most brilliant writers of the period. 

Illustrated, 8vo. $2.00 net 

FORTHCOMING FICTION 

The Brass Bounder By DAVID BONE 

Spirit of Mirth B y PEGGY WEBLING 

Two Imposters and Tinker By DOROTHEA CONYERS, author of " Three Girls 

and a Hermit." 
The Andersons By S. MAC NAUGHTAN, author of "The Expensive Miss Du Cane." 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 31 



142 THE DIAL, [March 1, 



The Baker & Taylor Co.'s Spring Books 




THE NEW NATIONALISM By Theodore Roosevelt 

Mr. Roosevelt's declaration and defence of his political creed. 
12ino, 268 pages. $1.50 net ; postage, 12 cents. 

THE TENNESSEE SHAD By Owen Johnson \ 

More Lawrenceville Stories about " Doc Macnooder," " Finnegan," " The Tennessee Shad," and the rest. 
12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. $1.20 net; postage, 10 cents. 

THE CANON IN RESIDENCE By Victor L. Whitechurch 

A novel of life in an English cathedral town. Recalls Trollope in subject and manner. 
I2mo, 247 pages. $1.20 net; postage, 10 cents. 

DAN McLEAN'S ADVENTURES By Frederick Walworth Brown 

Stirring exploits on the Mississippi among river pirates. An American " Treasure Island." 
12mo, 300 pages, frontispiece. $1.25. 

j THE BLUE GOOSE CHASE By Herbert K. Job 

S A camera hunt in the Southern swamp, in which two boys play an active part. 

12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. $1.25. C 

MALORY'S KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS By Henry B. Lot hrop 

Gives the true flavor of the famous old book. 
I2mo, 370 pages, illustrated by Reginald Birch. $1.50 net ; postage, 14 cents. 

SEEING EUROPE BY AUTOMOBILE By Lee Meriwether 

Familiar and unfamiliar places seen from one's own car. 
12mo, 400 pages, fully illustrated. $2.00 net ; postage, 16 cents. 

AMERICAN LYRICS A deflnitive collection of American poetry Edited by Edith Rickert 

12mo, 450 pages. $1.75 net ; postage, 16 cents. 

THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO LIVING THINGS By E. T. Brewster 

(For children from eight to fifteen.) A narrative and readable account of familiar living things. 
First volume in this new series. 12mo, 320 pages, illustrated. $1.20 net ; postage, 10 cents. 

KINDERGARTEN AT HOME By V. M. Hillyer 

Play lessons arranged for use by mothers, governesses, and children. 
8vo, 200 pages, illustrated with drawings and diagrams. $1.25 net; postage, 14 cents. 

GUIDE TO ENGLISH HISTORY By Henry W. Elson 

A narrative and anecdotal account of England's story by an eminent and popular historian. 
12mo, 360 pages, fully illustrated. $1.25 net ; postage, 12 cents. 

GUIDE TO GREAT CITIES WESTERN EUROPE By Esther Singleton 

Describes the famous cities of France and the Spanish peninsula. 
12mo, 360 pages, fully illustrated. $1.25 net ; postage 12 cents. 

THE ILIAD OF HOMER Translated by Arthur G. Lewis 

Combines modern scholarship and the charm of good verse. 

Large paper edition, two volumes, 8vo, each 300 pages. $3.50 net ; postage extra. 

Regular edition 1 vol., 8vo, 600 pages. $1.75 net; postage, 16 cents. 

A PARADISE IN PORTUGAL By Mark Sale 

A medley of diary and narrative, giving an intimate and sincere account of a long sojourn in Portugal. 
12mo, 168 pages. $1.00 net; postage, 8 cents. 

THE DAWN OF MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATION By Angelo Mosso 

A monumental work of scholarship. 
Royal 8vo, 424 pages, 224 illustrations. $4.00 net ; postage, 30 cents. 

SIXTINE ROME By J. A. F. Orbaan 

A contribution to the architectural and personal history of Papal Rome. 
8vo, about 390 pages, profusely illustrated. $2.50 net; postage, 16 cents. 

A POET'S ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS By Alfred Noyes 

16mo, 407 pages. $1.00 net, postage 10 cents. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 33 E. 17th STREET, NEW YORK |i 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



143 




H 

U 

s 

H 
& 
S 

H 

fe 
S 

H 

b 
S 

H 

fc 
S 

H 



H 

fa 
S 

H 
fa 
S 

H 



Marie-Claire 



By 

Marguerite 
Audoux 



The striking novel written by a Parisian seamstress which has 
created such a stir in Europe. Arnold Bennett calls it "the 
exquisite expression of a temperament a divine accident." 
Coningsby Dawson considers it "without parallel in contempo- 
rary literature for sustained and quiet beauty." 

Cloth, $1.20 net 

The Round of the Clock 

The Story of Our Lives from Year to Year 

Upon every available source Sir W. R. Nicoll has levied toll to 
produce this record of men's lives at varying periods, in lustrums 
of five years, from birth to the age of sixty. The result is an 
interwoven anthology -essay of philosophy which every student 
and public speaker will value as a first aid in the preparation of 
an address. Cloth, $1.25 net 

The Girl From Nowhere 

From the moment The Girl From Nowhere makes unconven- 
tional entrance, through many unconventional episodes to an 
unconventional conclusion, she is as charming and refreshing 
a creature as you have ever met within a book. 

Cloth, $1.20 net 

THE NOVELS OF ARNOLD BENNETT 

CA new, uniform edition of the novels by the author whose masterly book, "The Old 
Wives' Tale," has given him a first place among present day novelists, and has created 
a demand for intimate knowledge of all his work. The list to date includes: 



By 

Sir William 
Nicoll, LL.D. 



By 

Mrs. Baillie- 

Reynolds 



The Book of Carlotta 



Being a revised edition (with new preface) of 
SACRED AND PROPANE LOVE. Net $1.20. 



Leonora 

The Tragedy of a Commonplace Life. Net $1.20. 

Anna of The Five Towns 

Net $1.20 

Smaller Books by ARNOLD BENNETT 



Buried Alive 



A deliciously humorous story of these days. 

Net $1.20 



Helen With The High Hand 

An Idyllic Diversion. Net $1.20 

A Great Man 

The Story of a Success. Net $ 1 .20 

The Old Wives' Tale 

Net $1.50 



How to Live on 24 Hours a Day: A wonderfully 

clever study of the uses of time ------- Boards Net $ .50 

Mental Efficiency: And Some Other Hints to Men and Women Boards Net .75 

The Human Machine: A Series of Studies - Boards Net 

Literary Taste: How to Form it ------ Cloth Net 

What the Public Wants: A Play. A decidedly clever 

comedy based upon modern newspaperdom . Cloth Net 



.75 
.75 



1.00 



AT ALL BOOKSELLERS 




GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, Publishers 

Publishers in America for HODDER & STOUGHTON 
35 WEST 32nd STREET z r s r. NEW YORK 



H&.SI 



H&.SHIH&.SI 



IHfcSI 



IH&.S 




144 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 1911. 









Important New Macmillan Books 








JUST READY 


NEW NOVELS 




Prof. E. R. A. SELIGMAN'S new book 


By MBS. HUBERT BARCLAY 






The Income Tax 


Trevor Lordship 






A Study of the History, the Theory, and the Prac- 


A love story ; the more interesting because its prob- 






tice of Income Taxation at home and abroad. 


lem of adjustment is not quite of the ordinary type. 






Cloth, 8vo, $3.00 net. 


Decorated cloth, $1.20 net; by mail $1.32. 






Professor IRVING FISHER'S new book 








The Purchasing Power of Money 


By HAMILTON DRUMMOND 






By the author of "The Nature of Capital and In- 


The Justice of the King 






come," "The Bate of Interest," etc. Professor of 
Political Economy at Yale University. 
Cloth, 8vo, $3.00 net. Ready this week. 


Full of adventure, gallantry, and the tender, whim- 
sical charm always associated with the name of 
Villon. Decorated cloth, $1.20 net; by mail $1.SS. 






Unitarian Thought 








By EPHRAIM EMERTON 


Prof. WILLIAM L. PHELPS'S new book 






Professor of Church History in Harvard University. 


Essays on Russian Novelists 






An interesting account of the line of thought held by 


By the author of " Essays on Modern Novelists," 






an unusual number of those men whose power of in- 
spiration has been abiding in American life. 


notable among last year's books as a vital discussion 
of matters of current interest. 






Cloth, IZmo, $1.50 net. 


Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net; by mail $1.60, 






Social Adjustment 








By SCOTT NEARING, Ph.D. 


MB. C. G. D. ROBERTS'S new book 






Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. A 
useful weapon in the fight against " submergence." 
Cloth, $1.50 net; by mail $1.61. 


Neighbors Unknown 

One of the best of new books of nature fiction, re- 
freshing by reason of an outdoor atmosphere and a 






The Training of Teachers for Sec- 


detachment from human problems. Cloth, $1.50. 






ondary Schools in Germany and 
the United States 


The Outlook to Nature 






By JOHN FRANKLIN BROWN 


By Professor L. H. BAILEY 






Author of " The American High School." 


Director of the New York State School of Agricul- 
ture, Cornell University. A new, revised edition. 






Cloth, $1.26 net. 


Cloth, $1.00 net. 






The Teaching of Agriculture in the 
High Schools 


Frederic Lassalle By GEORG BRANDES 

A new edition. Cloth, 8vo. Just ready. 






By GARLAND ARMOR BRICKER 








Assistant in Agricultural Education, Ohio State 


By ALLEN FRENCH 






University. Cloth, $1.00 net. 










The Siege of Boston 






Rural Hygiene 


A new volume in the interesting series of Stories 








from American History. 






By HENRY H. OGDEN 


Cloth, illustrated, $1.50 net. 






Professor of Sanitary Engineering, Cornell Univer- 








sity. A new volume in the Rural Science Series. 








Cloth, illustrated, $1.50 net; by mail $1.68. 










NEW NOVELS READY THIS WEEK 






Dry Farming 
By JOHN A. WIDTSOE 


While Caroline was' Growing 






President of the Agricultural College of Utah. Rural 


By JOSEPHINE DASKAM BACON 






Science Series. 


Author of "The Madness of Philip," "The Biog- 






Cloth, illustrated, $1.50 net; by mail $1.67. 


raphy of a Boy," etc. Cloth, $1.50. 






The Chemistry of Food and 


By GUSTAV FRENSSEN 






Nutrition 


Klaus Hinrich Baas 






By H. C. SHERMAN 


The story of a self-made man. Translated from the 






Professor of Organic Analysis, Columbia University. 


German by Esther E. Lape and Elizabeth F. Read. 






Cloth, 12mo, $1.50 net; by mail $1.62. 


Cloth, $1.50. 










PUBLISHED TH MACMILLAN COMPANY "S^^ 





THE DIAL 

Semi* fHontijlg Journal of Hitcrarjj Criticism, discussion, ant Information. 



Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 593. 



MARCH 1, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



CONTEXTS. 



PAGE 

. 145 



STAGE CHILDREN 

CASUAL COMMENT 147 

The lure of an uncrowded calling. A delightful bit 
of autobiographical audacity. Quantity and quality 
in play-writing. Emerson's undemonstrative gener- 
osity. Literary favorites of the blind. Carlyle on 
some of his contemporaries. Culture in Maukato. 
Humor in government documents. Why there is 
yet no American literature. A belated genius. A 
poet laureate's autobiography. The Huth bequest 
to the British Museum. The "Spectator's" bicen- 
tenary. A French epic of heroic proportions. 

THE MODERN NOVEL AND ITS PUBLIC. (Special 

Correspondence.) E. H. Lacon Watson .... 150 

COMMUNICATIONS 152 

The Thirty-six Original Dramatic Situations. 

F. H. Rodder and David Lloyd. 
The Cosmography of Plato and of Dante. William 

Fairfteld Warren. 
Misguided Poets and the Public Library. Louis I. 

Bredvold. 

Another Mourner of " Mizzeled." Lelia M. Richards. 
The Newly-Discovered "Byron MS.'' Samuel A. 

Tannenbaum. 

A PUBLISHER OF THE OLD SCHOOL. Percy F. 

Bicknell 154 

ENGLISH LITERATURE IN .SHAKESPEARE'S 

LIFETIME. James W. Tupper 156 

THE STEPHENS PRISON DIARY. W. H. Johnson 158 

THE EARLIEST LORDS OF THE OCEAN. Josiah 

Renick Smith 159 

THE MEMOIRS OF HEINE. James Toft Hatfield . 160 

RECENT POETRY. William Morton Payne . . . 162 
Phillpotts's Wild Fruit. Scott's The Voice of the 
Ancient. Flecker's Thirty-six Poems. Verses by 
" V." Mackereth's A Son of Cain. Scollard's 
Chords of the Zither. Ford's Songs and Sonnets. 
Taylor's Lavender and Other Verse. Robinson's 
The Town down the River. Robertson's Beauty's 
Lady, and Other Verses. Mrs. Whitney's Herbs 
and Apples. Mrs. Crew's -Egean Echoes, and Other 
Verses. Mrs. Garrison's The Earth Cry, and Other 
Poems. Miss Porter's Lips of Music. Miss Hall's 
Cactus and Pine. 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 168 

Progress of the French Republic. The evolution 
of styles in architecture. Rural essays and other 
disquisitions. Through the Hare in Heine's foot- 
prints. "The American Commonwealth" twenty- 
two years after. Across the Isle of Erin in a canoe. 
Municipal administration in America. 

NOTES 170 

TOPICS IN MARCH PERIODICALS 171 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . . 171 



STAGE CHILDREN. 



A great deal of mischief is done in the world 
by well-intentioned people who strike blindly 
at the abuses that excite them to indignation. 
They nearly always let the heart get the better 
of the head, and in their eagerness to do away 
with a particular evil, pay small heed to the 
collateral effects of the remedies which they 
seek to apply. Even roast pig may come too 
high when it costs the destruction of a house, 
and the wrong done by zealous reformers in 
other directions than that in which their own 
goal is set often outweighs the good they ac- 
complish. It is a pretty serious thing to invade 
the domain of personal liberty in the cause of 
any reform, and the reasons for so doing must 
be overwhelming to justify the reformer's aim. 
It is easier to use " blanket " measures and 
" dragnet " precautions than it is to study an 
evil closely and devise the exact cure it needs, 
but it always means undeserved and wanton 
injury to some of the persons affected. 

A good illustration of what we are saying 
may be found in the laws made by certain 
states for the purpose of keeping children off 
the stage. Now we hold that child labor is 
one of the greatest of present-day social evils, 
and we do not believe that the rights of parents 
are unduly invaded when they are required to 
keep their children at school. It is a clear 
case of organized society intervening to protect 
the rights of the young against the denial of 
those rights by their unscrupulous elders. 
Laws regulating child labor, by which we mean 
prohibiting it in many cases, are in our opinion 
wise laws and in no need of defence. But when 
it comes to a law forbidding children to take 
part in theatrical performances, a law so drastic 
as to make it practically impossible for a child, 
no matter how carefully its interests may be 
safeguarded, to appear upon the stage at all, 
we think that there is something to be said 
upon the other side. Certainly a strong case 
for the opposition is made in " The Stage Chil- 
dren of America," a pamphlet which comes 
from the National Alliance for the Protection of 
Stage Children. The members of this organi- 
zation are men and women of the highest char- 
acter, many of whom have no connection with 
the stage, and no one could fairly charge them 



146 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



with other than disinterested motives, in making 
their protest against such prohibitive laws as 
have just been mentioned. If the sponsors for 
this document have any bias, it is on the side of 
the children rather than of the theatre. 

The substance of their argument is that stage 
children have a truly enviable lot in comparison 
with children employed in most other places, 
and the substance of their plea is that a rational 
law would regulate the conditions under which 
the child actor should work, but would not 
prohibit all such work by one sweeping enact- 
ment. The statute now in force in New York 
is recommended as a model, and is urged for 
adoption in all the other states. It prohibits 
absolutely the employment of any child under 
sixteen as an acrobat or gymnast, in any im- 
moral exhibition, and in any practice dangerous 
or injurious "to the life, limb, health, or morals 
of the child." It also prohibits the appearance 
of children as singers, dancers, performers 
upon musical instruments, or actors in theatri- 
cal exhibitions, but qualifies this prohibition by 
permitting them to be thus employed if the 
consent of the local authorities be obtained, and 
no objection be made by the local organization 
devoted to the welfare of children. A law 
framed upon these lines would seem to provide 
every reasonable safeguard, and would clearly 
be more rational than a law which places 
trapeze tricks and Shakespearean fairies under 
the same ban. 

As the pamphlet now under consideration 
says, " child labor legislation should not only 
be directed toward protecting but also toward 
better equipping the child, and no legislation 
can serve either truly to protect or benefit a 
child, where such legislation denies to it any 
opportunity to develop its talents, or where the 
child is forbidden education or training in any 
art for which it displays special aptitude, or, as 
is often the case, actual genius." The stage is, 
after all, a profession, and one of those that 
contribute most to civilization. Not many are 
fit to enter it, but those who are endowed by 
nature with the necessary qualifications must be 
discovered at an early age, and their special 
education begun. The testimony offered upon 
this point is convincing. Nearly all the men 
and women who have won distinction as actors 
have begun their training in their tender years, 
and are agreed in claiming that this has been an 
essential factor in their success. John Drew 
says : " My own mother was a child actress and 
commended me to the stage, and I in turn have 
commended my daughter to it. I am convinced 



now that it is of absolute importance to the 
child genius that it should have every oppor- 
tunity in its pre-self-conscious period to learn 
the art of the stage." And Mr. Forbes- 
Robertson, speaking of the effort to keep chil- 
dren off the stage, says that " later the oppor- 
tunity may never come to the child, and it is 
robbing the drama of a possible genius, with 
the hope of making an excellent mechanic." 
On the other hand, Mr. Sothern has recently 
made the following confession : " Every day of 
my life I feel the lack of very early stage 
training. It would have been invaluable to me, 
for I was a peculiarly timid, self-conscious boy, 
and that training would have spared me then 
and advanced me now." Such testimony as this, 
which might easily be multiplied indefinitely, 
is worth more than any amount of doctrinaire 
abstract argument. 

When we think, moreover, of the normal 
conditions of child labor in almost all other 
occupations, even when the law exercises its 
humane control, and contrast them with the 
conditions under which the child of the stage 
does his work, we see that the theatre is about 
the last workshop in the world to provide ob- 
jects for our pity. In this light, the special 
efforts put forth to protect these children sug- 
gest the sort of benevolence that establishes 
homes for cats and dogs while suffering hu- 
manity is left to fend for itself. The stage 
child, as compared with the factory child, has 
comparatively little work to do, and even that 
is of a distinctly educational character. The 
stage child may have late hours (which is, we 
admit, a serious consideration), but on the 
other hand, the closest attention is paid to its 
comfort in the matters of food, clothing, and 
bodily care. It is usually under the direct 
supervision of parents or relatives, and is given 
education of the ordinary school sort in addition 
to the special education that is provided by its 
professional task. We are by no means to be 
taken as advocating the stage life for children, 
but we believe that it should not be denied to 
the right kind of children under the right con- 
ditions, and that whatever laws are made upon 
the subject should not raise barriers beyond 
which no child may be permitted to pass. 

The drama, as a whole, simply cannot dis- 
pense with child characters, and for these 
neither midgets nor grown-ups dressed as juven- 
iles can provide satisfactory substitutes. Cer- 
tain types of stage children we might readily 
spare, the child, for example, whose opportune 
introduction saves its parents from divorce, or 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



147 



the child who rescues the drunken father from 
the bar-room and restores him to the weeping 
wife. But even mawkish sentiment has its 
rights upon the stage, which we would not deny, 
although ourselves carefully avoiding the exhib- 
ition. We are now, however, urging the claims 
of such dramatic art as is exemplified in the 
creations of Shakespeare's fancy "The Tem- 
pest " and " A Midsummer Night's Dream " 
such as we find in " Peter Pan " and " The 
Piper " and " The Blue Bird." These plays 
must have child actors if they are to be prop- 
erly performed. To forbid children to take 
part in them (always under suitable restric- 
tions) is to wrong the children themselves, to 
wrong the dramatist, who is justified in pro- 
testing against so arbitrary a limitation upon his 
art, and to wrong the public, which has a right 
to insist upon seeing such masterpieces, ancient 
and modern, as those we have mentioned. On 
the whole, then, we approve of the contention 
made by the organization which has issued 
" The Stage Children of America," and are 
glad to say so in our State of Illinois, which is 
one of the chief sufferers under misguided 
legislation affecting this, as well as many other 
educational interests. 



CASUAL COMMENT. 

THE LUBE OF AN UNCROWDED CALLING, a calling 
rich in intellectual satisfactions and not requiring 
special abilities of a rare nature, should find many 
easy victims in these times when most professions 
are already congested and are yearly receiving an 
influx of poorly- equipped would-be practitioners, as 
the Carnegie Foundation investigators are making 
plain to the world. A brief pamphlet entitled 
" Librarianship an Uncrowded Calling," issued by 
the New York State Library School, and made up 
of papers prepared at various times and for various 
purposes by noted library workers, sets forth in 
glowing colors some of the altruistic delights of the 
profession, and describes in general outline the 
requisite qualifications and ordinary duties of the 
modern librarian. In especially appealing accents 
does Miss Elva L. Bascom, known as Editor of the 
" A. L. A. Booklist," address the college woman and 
invite her to enter upon library work, the personal 
qualities necessary for which are briefly defined. 
" The two most important," she says, " are effici- 
ency and enthusiasm. To these should be added, 
for the ideal library worker, accuracy, order, ex- 
ecutive ability, initiative, and a good personality. 
An ' efficient ' librarian must have a good general 
education and a thorough library training, plus the 
ability to think clearly and quickly, to judge fairly, 
to work effectively : perhaps there are other qualities 



that should be included under this most comprehen- 
sive word, but these are the ones that come first to 
my mind. Enthusiasm needs no comment or 
would not if librarians in this country were not 
justifiably proud of what they call 'library spirit.' 
I despair of defining just what it implies perhaps 
enthusiasm coupled with optimism, tempered with 
experience, and strengthened by a fine sense of the 
privilege of service. . . . The work is distinctly 
that of social service, and the qualities that will 
bring the worker into closest contact with the peo- 
ple are those that are most desirable, next to those 
that make for a good foundation in education and 
special training." Perhaps, after this enumeration 
of qualities that must conjoin, in due proportion, to 
make the "efficient" librarian, our foregoing re- 
ference to librarianship as a calling " not requiring 
special abilities of a rare nature " will tend to elicit 
protest. ... 

A DELIGHTFUL BIT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL AU- 
DACITY was offered to a not sufficiently appreciative 
public some years ago in Mr. Arnold Bennett's 
anonymous book entitled "The Truth about an 
Author." Since he has come into his own with the 
deserved success of "The Old Wives' Tale," "Helen 
with the Higb Hand," " Clayhanger," and other 
products of his lively imagination and literary skill, 
the little-known essay in self-revelation has been 
eagerly turned to for information concerning the 
brilliant and versatile author. Among other items 
of interest gathered from its ingenuous pages, it is 
noted that the boy Arnold was early attracted to 
literature ; wrote verses, in the form of a hymn, at 
eleven ; entered the field of prose romance with a 
story written for his teacher ; forsook literature for 
art, and indulged in paint for a protracted period, 
rarely opening a book, and remaining ignorant of 
Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and other 
classic authors, until manhood, not even " David 
Copperfield" being known to him until he was 
thirty. But one author, not exactly a classic, he did 
devour in his adolescence, and that was " Ouida." It 
was she, he confesses, who gave him " that taste for 
liaisons under pink lampshades which I shall always 
have, but which, owing to a Puritanical upbringing, 
I shall never be able to satisfy." The account of his 
steady and rather rapid rise in the London world of 
letters, where he seems to have turned his hand to 
almost every sort of honorable and decently-paid 
literary work, of his later migration to the quiet of 
the country, and (but this is not in the book ) of his 
latest move to the French capital, where his indus- 
try appears to continue unabated, cannot but interest 
the large number who desire his writings as the hart 
panteth after the water-brooks. 



QUANTITY AND QUALITY IN PLAY-WRITING, as 
in other departments of literature, are often in- 
versely proportional to each other, but not always. 
That very successful dramatist, Sir Arthur Pinero, 
is credited with the recent assertion that one play 



148 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



a year is enough for any man, and another popular 
playwright is warned by his friends that he is writ- 
ing too rapidly when he announces four plays as his 
season's product. This invites a backward glance at 
the great dramatists of the past. Surely there were 
giants of productivity in those days. ^Eschylus is 
believed to have written between seventy-two and 
ninety tragedies, more than half of which were 
first-prize-winners, though only seven have survived. 
Sophocles, with the same number of extant plays, 
is said to have produced one hundred and twenty- 
three, or even one hundred and thirty. Euripides 
is credited with a total of one hundred and twenty, 
of which eighteen have come down to us. Aristo- 
phanes, known to us by his eleven extant comedies, 
is thought to have written nearly four times that num- 
ber. Plautus had as many as one hundred and thirty 
comedies ascribed to him (though on doubtful 
authority), and twenty have survived, more or less 
complete. Shakespeare in twenty years wrote some 
thirty-five plays without beginning to apply himself 
strenuously or exclusively to authorship. His Span- 
ish contemporary, Lope de Vega, is held to have 
written the incredible number of fifteen hundred 
(some say eighteen hundred) regular dramas, besides 
several hundred autos or religious pieces and en- 
tremeses or interludes. Calderon has the credit of 
about one hundred and twenty plays. Goldoni left 
nearly one hundred and fifty comedies to attest 
the varying excellence of his workmanship. Tom 
Taylor wrote or adapted more than one hundred 
pieces for the stage, and other recent prolific play- 
wrights are the younger Dumas, Boucicault, BjOrn- 
son, and Clyde Fitch. That some or all of these 
might have written better if they had written less 
is of course possible, but the fact remains that the 
greatest dramatists of the past have as a rule not 
stinted themselves in their output. A noteworthy 
contrasting instance in the present is the author of 
"Chantecler." 

EMERSON'S UNDEMONSTRATIVE GENEROSITY to 
those less fortunate than he in the matter of tangi- 
ble returns for literary work, was as fine as it was 
little known. In a privately-printed volume, " Rec- 
ords of a Lifelong Friendship," just put forth by 
Dr. Horace Howard Furness and composed of the 
correspondence from 1837 to 1877 of Emerson and 
his schoolmate, the editor's father, the late Dr. 
William Henry Furness, there appears a character- 
istic instance of this generosity. Ellery Channing 
had been proposed by his friend Emerson as a con- 
tributor to " The Gift," an elegant annual of the 
period, published by Carey & Hart of Philadelphia, 
and edited by Dr. Furness. Emerson himself had 
been asked to contribute, and he searched his port- 
folios, " but without a clear and satisfactory result," 
as he writes to Furness. "Here, however," he 
adds, " are some verses from my friend C. new 
virgin poems. If you like his poetry half as well 
as I do, you will think me honorably represented 
by such a proxy. But I do not mean to decline a 



personal appearance in such good company, and if 
you will give me as long a day as last year, namely, 
to 15 March, I will send you some prose or verse, 
the best that I can, by that day. The bargain 
shall be the same as last year, that whatever fee 
Mr. Carey judges suitable to Channing's and mine 
united, shall be forwarded to Channing as the price 
of his alone." This recalls the same benefactor's 
goodness to Alcott, of which one among many not 
too well-known instances may here be given. At a 
conversazione held for Alcott's benefit at Emerson's 
house the sum of thirty dollars was collected and 
handed to the beneficiary. " I dare say," was his 
daughter Louisa's shrewd comment, " Mr. Emerson 
gave twenty dollars himself." 

LITERARY FAVORITES OF THE BLIND might by 
some be thought to be limited chiefly to works of a 
contemplative, introspective character, treating of 
that inner life with which the sightless are perforce 
so familiar. What, one might ask, have they to do 
with light and color, with visible shapes and out- 
lines, with stir and movement, as noted by the sense 
of seeing? And yet the blind, even those born 
blind, habitually use the vocabulary of their more 
fortunate neighbors, and the verb " to see " is by no 
means excluded from their phraseology. Thus it 
results that their taste in books is rather for the ob- 
jective, the pages that glow with color and are alive 
with action, than for the intensely subjective. The 
works circulated among the blind of New York State 
by the State Library at Albany form an instructive list 
in this regard. From the current report of Director 
Wyer we learn that Mark Twain's " Tom Sawyer " 
is the best-read book of the lot ; Mrs. Wiggin's 
" Rebecca " stories are almost equally popular ; 
Mr. Owen Wister's " The Virginian " is a prime 
favorite ; and so is Mrs. GaskelPs " Cranford," as 
might not have been expected. The very last on 
the list of twenty-one is "David Copperfield," 
which is far outdistanced by certain works of the 
non-fiction class. In the list of periodicals printed 
for the blind, it is to be noted with regret that no 
fewer than four styles of typography are used, 
New York point, American Braille, English Braille, 
and Moon, while a fifth, line letter, is used in 
many of their books. Why could not the blind, 
sufficiently handicapped already, have been spared 
this Babel of tongues in their reading ? 



CARLYLE ON SOME OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES is 
interestingly reported in the February issue of "The 
English Review " by Mr. Frank Harris, who had 
a number of intimate interviews with the Chelsea 
celebrity near the close of the latter 's life. All the 
world knows how slightingly Carlyle was wont to 
speak of Darwin's theory of evolution. Conse- 
quently it is a satisfaction for the Darwin-admirer 
to find his scornful critic according him some credit 
after all. " I saw in him then qualities I had hardly 
done justice to before," he says in recounting a 
chance interview, "a patient clear-mindedness, 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



149 



fairness, too, and above all, an allegiance to facts, 
just as facts, which was most pathetic to me ; it was 
so instinctive, determined, even desperate, a sort of 
belief in its way, an English belief, that the facts 
mast lead you right if you only followed them hon- 
estly, a poor groping blind faith all that seems 
possible to us in these days of flatulent unbelief 
and piggish unconcern for everything except swill 
and straw." But a little later he breaks out : " The 
theory, man ! the theory is as old as the everlasting 
hills." (Impatient contempt in his voice as he spoke.) 
" There's nothing in it nothing; it leads no whither 
all sound and noise signifying naething, naething." 
Asked to name the greatest of all the great men he 
had met in his long lifetime, he replied at once: 
" Emerson ! Emerson by far, and the noblest "; 
and he nodded his head, adds Mr. Harris, and re- 
peated the name with a sort of reminiscent emotion. 



CULTURE IN MANKATO is high and still rising, 
as any one may convince himself by consulting the 
latest annual report of the Mankato Free Public 
Library. "Mankatonians have as good taste as 
the proverbial Bostonians," asserts, with justifiable 
pride, the Mankato librarian ; " and we have proven 
by experience that our patrons will read good liter- 
ature when good literature is put within their reach ; 
when books of real merit rather than books of an 
ephemeral nature are placed to catch the eye of 
everyone approaching the desk fiction that is 
sound and wholesome, and non-fiction to appeal to 
the student, the professional man, the artisan, the 
tradesman ; to the mother, the society woman, the 
housemaid, the child ; books to refine the mind and 
elevate the taste ; nor does this bar out light read- 
ing reading for the tired mother requiring recrea- 
tion, for the sentimental miss in high school or fac- 
tory, reading for the man or woman getting his or her 
first introduction to literature." Another paragraph 
that catches the eye states that " the library takes a 
part in all campaigns : tuberculosis, the commission 
plan of government, good roads, food-inspection, 
politics, etc., thereby standing for the practical as 
well as the cultural.'' As evidence of the sober and 
substantial quality of Mankato culture, let it be noted 
that under the regime of the present librarian the 
circulation of non-fiction has been raised since 1905 
from twenty-four to forty-five per cent of the total 
circulation, " and the fiction called for is a much 
better grade now than formerly." This, we infer, 
has been effected in no small part by the judicious ex- 
posure of the best books of the day and of the ages. 



HUMOR ix GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, those for- 
midable and rapidly-accumulating volumes that con- 
stitute one of the unsolved problems of librarianship, 
is not often looked for and is still more seldom found. 
A bill introduced Feb. 14, though not ostensibly as 
a comic valentine, in the Massachusetts House of 
Representatives, has more of this rare legislative 
humor than is often embodied in such proposed 



enactments. The bill is one of those many proposals 
to tax bachelors which never get beyond the initial 
stage ; and of course it makes the customary disposal 
of the prospective revenue in favor of the unmar- 
ried women, whose spinsterhood is a standing re- 
proach to celibate men. But it further specifies that 
said spinsters must be " deserving " and must be 
"those who have passed, or are believed to have 
passed, the marriageable age." What woman with 
the smallest remnant of woman-nature in her make- 
up would ever submit to being classed among the 
unmarriageables ? Another curious clause exempts 
from taxation the bachelor who can prove " that he 
is not of good moral character, or that he is otherwise 
unfit for matrimony." The amount of the yearly 
mulct (five dollars) is not sufficient to inspire any 
vehement desire to prove one's moral worthlessness, 
or one's undesirability as a husband in other respects. 
But there is no likelihood that these gems of humor 
will be preserved in statute form. The more will- 
ingly, therefore, do we here rescue them from 
oblivion. ... 

WHY THERE IS YET NO AMERICAN LITERATURE 

is explained by Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson in 
the February "Atlantic Monthly." Writing in 
his customary frank and agreeable style on "The 
American Spirit," he pleasantly though firmly 
refuses to grant that we have anything worthy of 
being called a literature of our own, and adds the 
usual and the obvious explanation that we are still 
too young and too busy with our material develop- 
ment. But, he adds, "one of the most hopeful 
signs of promise is the rich, racy, vigorous knack 
of conversational expression Americans possess." 
And this, he opines, '' may be the seed of a great 
literature, because it is the sign that thought is 
taking its own shape and crystallizing itself, even 
though it be in bizarre forms." In this connection 
it is an interesting fact, not noted by Mr. Benson, 
that some of our raciest so-called Americanisms are 
nothing but survivals of old idioms that have died 
out in the home of their origin. Thus the crystal- 
lization referred to by him took place, in part at 
least, ages ago in his own country. 
... 

A BELATED GENIUS, a man or woman who has 
arrived at maturity or even passed beyond it with 
no suspicion of extraordinary latent powers, now 
and then comes into public notice and serves to 
remind the inconspicuous plodder that there may 
yet be fame or fortune, or both, awaiting him in 
some fold of the mantle that muffles the mysterious 
future. The late Owen Kildare, author of " Mamie 
Rose," " The Good of the Wicked," " The Wisdom 
of the Simple," and "My Old Bailiwick," as also 
of the unsuccessful dramatization of the first-named 
book, which made its appearance at Wallack's 
Theatre as "The Regeneration," could neither read 
nor write at thirty years of age. The romantic 
story of his rescue from illiteracy and vagabondage 
by a school-teacher of New York's lower East Side, 



150 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



where he was born of an Irish father and a French 
mother, and where he grew up in hap-hazard fashion, 
contains many curious details. The final accumu- 
lation of troubles and misfortunes, after he had so 
surprisingly made his literary mark, forms a sad 
sequel to this hopeful beginning of better things. 



A POET LAUREATE'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, a thing 
not so common in our literature as buttercugs in 
June, is promised soon. Mr. Alfred Austin has 
written his reminiscences, and the house of Mac- 
millan is to publish them, as we hear from London. 
The graceful prose of the present poet laureate has 
probably won him more readers than his verse 
or at least than that particular portion of his verse 
which has come from him by virtue of his high 
office. It is remarkable, by the way, how little he 
has impressed himself upon the world's attention as 
Poet Laureate of England. Probably there are 
hundreds of cultured and well-informed persons in 
this country who would be at a loss if asked sud- 
denly to name Tennyson's successor. Only a few 
weeks ago there appeared in a Boston paper of high 
standing an editorial reference to Mr. William 
Watson as poet laureate. And why this delay in 
knighting Mr. Austin ? Even English newspapers 
occasionally refer to him as Sir Alfred Austin, as if 
a laureate must by reason of his office have a right 
to a title. Let us hope that when honors are dis- 
tributed at the coming coronation he will be re- 
membered that is, if he cares for that sort of 
thing. 

THE HUTH BEQUEST TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM 

forms an important clause in that part of Mr. Huth's 
will which relates to the famous library soon to be 
dispersed ( unless a sufficient offer is made for it as 
a whole) and already referred to by us. The be- 
quest is made in these terms : " If at any time it 
should be found necessary to sell the collection, 
before such sale the authorities of the British 
Museum are to have the first selection of a gift of 
fifty items therefrom, which shall be marked by 
them and always known as the Huth Bequest. In 
making this selection the authorities shall not be 
allowed to take a second or more perfect copy of 
an item already in the National Collection, unless 
they shall exchange such item for the one already in 
their possession, the exchange of any item being 
counted as one of the fifty for their selection." The 
half-hundred choicest items in a private library 
estimated as now worth a quarter of a million pounds 
will form a collection of no little value, in terms 
of dollars and cents, and of exceeding interest to 
book-lovers. 

THE " SPECTATOR'S " BICENTENARY ought not to 
pass unnoted. Two hundred years ago to-day 
(March 1) appeared the first number of what was 
destined to be the most famous periodical of its kind ; 
and though it ran for less than two years from 
March 1, 1711 to Dec. 6, 1712 it nevertheless, 
as has been said of it, " fixed new standards of man- 



ners, morals, and taste, whose influence lasted many 
years." Even now it is read, not only as prescribed 
reading in school and college, but for the pure 
pleasure of its graceful and correct style, its old- 
fashioned allusions and quotations, and the agreeable 
picture it affords of a bygone age. Of the essays 
which formed its contents, Addison wrote two hun- 
dred and seventy-four, and Steele two hundred and 
forty. Its early extinction was due to the imposi- 
tion of a government tax on periodicals a half- 
penny, or some such trifling amount, which was 
enough to make the difference between profit and 
loss to the publishers of Addison's venture. 

A FRENCH EPIC OF HEROIC PROPORTIONS follows 
close on the heels of M. Romain Holland's indeter- 
minate serial, "Jean Christophe," which has now 
attained its tenth volume. The very name of the 
poem in question, "L'Epope"e de la Grande Nation," 
is a guaranty of good measure ; and though at present 
only the first part, covering the period from May 5 r 
1789, to May 5, 1821, has appeared in print, we 
are assured that the entire work will extend to more 
than twenty-five thousand lines two-thirds longer 
than the " Iliad," and nearly thrice the length of 
" Paradise Lost." The author, one Abel des Trois- 
Arches, began this great national epic of his forty- 
two years ago, so that it may be considered his life- 
work. In the face of this robust performance will 
any man now dare to assert that poetry is on the 
decline ? 



THE MODERN NOVEL AND ITS 
PUBLIC. 



(Special Correspondence of THE DIAL.) 

London, Feb. 18, 1911. 

When there is nothing of great importance hap- 
pening, from the journalistic point of view, our 
enterprising press has the pleasant habit now and 
again of starting a discussion and inviting corre- 
spondence on the subject from interested readers. 
With a little judicious fostering, and a certain num- 
ber of letters written in the office to indicate the 
best methods of treating the topic, these arguments 
sometimes reach truly formidable proportions, es- 
pecially if they deal with a religious or moral sub- 
ject. With literature, the general public is justly 
supposed to be less concerned ; and it is rare to find 
a paper "opening its columns " (as the phrase runs) 
to any discussion about the making of books. But 
a few months ago the unexpected happened : the 
" Westminster Gazette " did actually invite the 
opinions of its readers on the momentous question 
of the Length of Modern Novels ; and, curiously 
enough, this departure from the old tradition met 
with considerable success. For some weeks the 
novelists of England entrusted their opinions on this 
fascinating topic to the correspondence columns of 
our premier evening paper, commonly at a length 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



151 



inversely proportioned to the importance of the 
writer. The diversity of opinion registered was re- 
markable ; until at last one sensible man propounded 
the theory that a novel, like a pair of trousers, should 
be cut to the measure of the material it was meant 
to contain. The correspondence closed shortly 
afterwards. 

Generally speaking, the public prefers a good 
long novel to a good short one, as is only natural. 
The more the buyer gets for his money, assuming 
the quality to be equal, the better he is pleased. 
But it is also true that the modern reader does not 
want his attention taken off the main theme by any 
irrelevant matter. I do not think the ordinary 
consumer of novels to-day spends much time in read- 
ing the old masters. Most houses in London that 
have any library at all no doubt possess editions of 
Scott, Thackeray, and Dickens ; but they are rarely 
taken down from the shelves. If " Quentin Dur- 
ward," or " Vanity Fair," or " Martin Chuzzlewit " 
were offered to the London trade to-day as new 
books by unknown authors I am confident they 
would be refused, not because of their mere length 
but because their authors had not learned the art of 
excluding matter not germane to the story. Scott's 
prefatory and introductory remarks alone would 
often fill as many pages as a modern novelist re- 
quires for his whole book. Thackeray, they would 
say, was always introducing long apostrophic reflec- 
tions on things in general. Dickens invented so 
many subsidiary characters and side-issues that he 
was forced, as it were, to strike a balance-sheet at 
the end of the book, telling his anxious readers in a 
few words what had become of all the secondary 
personages who had flitted across his pages. I dare 
not imagine what the modern publisher would say 
of his other habit of interpolating whole stories, such 
as " The Stroller's Tale " in the third chapter of 
" The Pickwick Papers." 

The fact is that, so far as construction goes, the 
technique of the novel has been improved out of all 
recognition during the last thirty years. A great 
number of very poor novels are published year by 
year ; but, bad as they are, they do not generally err 
in the direction of technique. The plot may be thin, 
the characters wooden, the writing undistinguished 
or even ungrammatical ; but the author has gener- 
ally the merit of keeping the story well in view from 
start to finish. He has discovered that the one thing 
he must not do is to allow the reader's attention to 
wander. It is far more likely to wander than it 
was in the old days ; and this is not entirely due to 
inferiority in the artist of the twentieth century, 
it is due rather to the rise of a new and half-educated 
public, who have been fed on papers like " Answers " 
and " Tit-bits " the babies' food of the young 
reader. It remains to be seen whether this public 
will ever be educated up to anything better ; but 
at present they are incapable of absorbing any para- 
graph of more than five or six lines in length. They 
require a series of shocks to keep them awake, and 
consequently the modern novelist has learned the 



imprudence of indulging in prolixity. The page of 
a new novel must not even present a physical appear- 
ance of solidity ; if a publisher sees the proofs come 
from the printer with more than ten inches of un- 
broken matter he is quite capable (as has happened 
more than once in my own case) of breaking up the 
paragraphs himself. Only a few of the old guard, 
such as Mr. Henry James, are permitted some lati- 
tude in this respect probably because they were 
found to be incorrigible. 

It is easy to theorize about the production of 
books, but it is still extraordinarily difficult to predict 
with any approach to accuracy how the public will 
receive any given specimen. Yet one can generally 
tell what sort of reception it will meet with from the 
reviewers. Some years ago this would have been 
sufficient; there was a time when a few enthusiastic 
acclamations in the more important papers sent a 
new book gaily forward on the road to success. In 
these days the criticisms of the press seem to have 
lost their effect upon readers ; the reviewers may 
praise until they have exhausted every adjective in 
their vocabulary, yet the buyers will refuse to come 
in. Sometimes I am almost inclined to think that 
a chorus of commendation damps the ardor of 
the public ; they suspect all sorts of things an 
organized attempt to boom the work of a personal 
friend, or perhaps even bribery. They have lost 
their child-like faith in the infallibility of the critic 
that our forefathers possessed. It is a curious and 
instructive fact that the most popular writers of the 
present day in the world of fiction Hall Caine, 
Marie Corelli, and the author who is probably sell- 
ing more sixpenny editions than anyone else just now, 
Charles Garvice are the three novelists for whom 
the reviewers never have a good word to say. The 
people are not only uneducated, then, but obstinate; 
they hear the voice of their master, but deliberately 
stuff their ears with cotton-wool ; they do not wish 
to learn. And the critic can only sigh and point 
out for their own satisfaction that in all branches 
of art the public has ever admired, with a curious 
consistency, the worst that is put before it. 

What does sell a novel? The irresponsible 
chatter of women at afternoon tea, say some of my 
friends. I think it a fact that women have a great 
deal to say in the matter. They read far more 
novels than the men ; they take their reading more 
seriously ; and are more likely to discuss their 
favorites afterwards. Thus some of the literary 
agents now lay it down as a cardinal rule that, in 
a successful story, the feminine interest should be 
dominant. Women, they argue, like to read about 
themselves, and especially to learn how they should 
behave in moments of emotional stress. There is 
thus a formula for the construction of the " big 
seller," if anyone could ever work to a formula, and 
if the literary agents are correct. Personally, I 
fear that the great secret eludes analysis. Like 
many so-called games of chance, the art of success- 
ful novel-writing is a matter of fortune, with a re- 
servation in favor of the better player. The good 



152 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



man will commonly achieve a modest independence 
in time, if he goes on trying. For the rest, it is 
well for him not to be too much concerned with the 
commercial side of his work. 

The artist, we used to say, is seldom a good man 
of business. The reproach, or encomium (for it 
will bear either interpretation), is probably as true 
now as then, but the artist of to-day has a host of 
helpers anxious to take the business side of his 
profession off his shoulders. Some half-dozen lit- 
erary agents of repute have followed the lead given 
them by Mr. A. P. Watt, the doyen of the profes- 
sion ; and it is now the exception for an author of 
any popularity to conduct negotiations personally 
for the sale of his work. And in addition to the 
agents, there is also the Society of Authors that 
eminently useful institution founded by the late 
Sir Walter Besant for the protection of the writer 
against his natural foes, the editor and the publisher. 
With these two forces working on his side, I cannot 
help thinking that the balance of power has now 
shifted. The writer who has anything worth selling 
is so well protected that no year passes without one 
or more publishers going through the bankruptcy 
court or retiring unostentatiously from business. 
The days are gone by when he could recoup himself 
for a series of losses by an occasional bargain. In 
order to keep himself afloat he is compelled to seek 
every possible means of adding to his slender profits ; 
and no sooner does he discover a new avenue to 
wealth than the Society erects a toll-bar across the 
highway and demands additional royalities for its 
fortunate clients. The committee has its collective 
eye now upon the use that some publishers are 
making of cheap books as advertising media. The 
printing of publishers' lists at the end of a book has 
been the custom for ages, though even here there 
may be a doubt as to the strict legality of the pro- 
cess. But when the publisher of a cheap shilling or 
sixpenny novel proceeds to pad out the book with 
advertisements of pills and soap and face-powders 
and safety razors, not only on the covers and end 
pages but sometimes interleaved with the body of 
the story, it is felt that he is seriously interfering 
with the Dignity of Letters. And no man, says 
the Society of Authors, shall dare to interfere with 
that dignity without paying heavily for the privilege. 

The February number of " The Author," the 
official organ of the Society, has dealt with this topic. 
I foresee a very pretty quarrel. The publishers 
will no doubt point to the magazines in justification 
of their action. If you can advertise in a collection 
of stories by various hands, why should you not do 
the same in a single story published at the same 
price? For my own part, I am divided in my 
sympathies : I am anxious that the novelist should 
make a decent living, but this steady procession 
of publishers wending their way to the court of 
bankruptcy is not without its serious side. A cer- 
tain amount of healthy competition is good for all 
trades, and I do not want to see the publishers of 
London reduced to a few big houses. But certainly 



an author has a right to grumble when he sees his 
most impassioned love-scene faced with a page in 
praise of corsets, cosmetics, and specifics for the 
reduction of obesity. E H LACON WATSON. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



THE THIRTY-SIX ORIGINAL DRAMATIC 

SITUATIONS. 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

The inquiry of your correspondent respecting the 
number of possible dramatic situations will probably 
call out numerous answers. It was Goethe who, in his 
Conversations with Eckermann, under date of February 
14, 1830, attributed to Gozzi the statement that there 
could be but thirty-six " tragic situations," and added 
that Schiller thought that there were more but could 
never find as many. There is a little book by Georges 
Polti, entitled " Les trente-six situations dramatiques," 
published in Paris in 1895 by " Le Mercure de France," 
which undertakes to set forth in detail these situations 
as they occur in ancient and modern drama. 

F. H. HODDER. 

Lawrence, Kans., Feb. 18, 1911. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

As Professor Schelling has started Mr. Kennedy in 
quest of the original dramatic situations, it may be inter- 
esting to recall that Polti says that Goethe said that 
Gozzi said there could be only thirty-six, and that this set 
Schiller off, who took much pains to find more but could 
not even find so many. Apparently the results were not 
formulated. The omission was too much for Georges 
Polti. In the fulness of time, in 1895, he published in 
Paris his " Thirty-six Dramatic Situations," wherein 
with a thoroughness all Teutonic he digested the con- 
tent not of drama simply but of literature and history. 
To set down the brief headings under which each group 
is analyzed by its numerous subdivisions does scant 
justice, of course, to his ingenuity and skill. They run 
as follows: 

1, Supplication; 2, The Savior; 3, Vengeance pur- 
suing crime; 4, To avenge kinsman upon kinsman; 5, 
The Fugitive hunted; 6, Disaster; 7, A Prey; 8, Re- 
volt; 9, Daring effort; 10, Carrying off; 11, The 
riddle; 12, To obtain; 13, Hatred of kinsmen; 14, 
Rivalry of kinsmen or friends; 15, Murderous adulterer; 
16, Madness; 17, Fatal imprudence; 18, Involuntary 
crime of love; 19, To kill a kinsman before recognition; 
20, To sacrifice to the ideal; 21, To sacrifice for kins- 
men; 22, To sacrifice all to passion; 23, To be obliged 
to sacrifice one's kinsmen; 24, Rivalry of unequals; 25, 
Adultery; 26, Crimes of love; 27, To learn the dis- 
honor of one who is loved; 28, Loves obstructed; 29, 
To love an enemy; 30, Ambition; 31, Struggle against 
God; 32, Mistaken jealousy; 33, Judicial error; 34, 
Remorse; 35, Recovery; 36, To lose one's kinsmen. 

The search for the indivisible elements out of which 
the interaction of impulse and circumstance produces 
its myriad compounds must be a pastime of scholars 
born without a taste for chess. Some new result 
emerges periodically to start an epidemic among the 
laity. One tendency seems worth noting: the number 
of elements, against analogy, is diminishing. It is no 
answer to say that the whole affair is one of classifica- 
tion; as well say that chess is a mere matter of check- 
mate, or that " Les trente-sept sous de M. Montaudoin " 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



153 



is a mere matter of arithmetic. Has anyone proposed 
a reduction to thirteen fundamental types ? Or has the 
" thirteen original " been assimilated from our familiar 
"thirteen original colonies"? Or is there some con- 
fusion here with Professor Baker's dozen? Heretofore 
I have been immune from the disease, but this new- 
fangled Microbe Thirteen has found a foothold in my 
curiosity. Mr. Kennedy, it is a comfort to know, is in 
a worse state; for he has been suffering, apparently 
during some years of time, from the " seven original 
jokes " as well. Should it not be the seven cardinal 
jokes? And shouldn't the perennial attempt toward 
such enumerations as these be recognized as one of the 
seven? DAVID LLOYD. 

New York City, Feb. 17, 1911. 

THE COSMOGRAPHY OF PLATO AND OF DANTE. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

In Professor John A. Stewart's " Myths of Plato," 
page 102, the author speaks of the "strange coinci- 
dence " that in Dante's Inferno, " which is so largely 
modelled on the Sixth Book of the JSneid," there 
should re-appear the Phaedo " description of Tartarus 
as bored right through the earth," a conception 
" unique in Greek mythology and in no way counten- 
anced by Vergil." It certainly is a parallelism well 
worthy of notice ; and the Professor drops many another 
remark in the work which the student of Dante will 
find illuminating. The Dantean conception of hell, 
however, and the Dantean conception of its origin, have 
another parallel which seems to me still more striking. 
It is found in a sacred book of the Parsees, " The 
Bundahish," and as I have never seen it referred to as 
a parallel, I take the liberty of calling attention to it 
here. Dante, as every reader will remember, pictures 
Lucifer as having " by the force of his fall bored a 
passage down to the centre of the earth" (Stewart, 
p. 106). The Bundahish gives the same picture, say- 
ing : " The centre of the earth was pierced and entered 
by him," i.e., the Evil Spirit. Again, Dante represents 
Lucifer as remaining in the lowest hell thus formed at 
the precise centre of the earth. Similar is the repre- 
sentation of the Bnndahish, which says : " Hell is in 
the middle of the earth; there where the Evil Spirit 
pierced the earth and rushed in upon it." Again, despite 
the fact that he was describing the fallen angel as pos- 
sessed of wings and legs, Dante calls him " the abhorred 
worm which boreth through the world " In like man- 
ner, in the Appendix to the Bundahish, Ahriman is 
described as coming on " through the middle of the 
earth, as a snake, all-leaping comes out of a hole; and 
he stayed within the whole earth. The passage whereon 
he came is his own, the way to hell, through which the 
demons make the wicked run." (West's translation in 
"Sacred Books of the East," Vol. V., 17, 19, 161). 
Could Dante have known anything of the Bundahish, 
or of any writer who drew upon the Persian teaching ? 

WILLIAM FAIRFIELD WARREN. 
Boston University, Feb. IS, 1911. 



MISGUIDED POETS AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Apropos of your editorial on " Misguided Poets," 
permit me to call attention to a nuisance in our public 
libraries, especially to be found on the shelves devoted 
to the poets. Every loiterer among the stacks must he 



familiar with those slender volumes with a binding of 
peculiar style (a connoisseur can always know them by 
their bindings) with the words written inside " Don- 
ated by the Author." They are not entirely useless, as 
they furnish an endless supply of amusement. One 
gentleman of the tribe appended his biography to his 
volume, and in one sentence has so crystallized the folly 
of them *11 that it ought to be considered their classic 
expression: "I have donated copies of my ' Cudmore's 
Prophecy of the Twentieth Century ' to libraries in the 
United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South 
America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and 
Tasmania." 

The particular kind of provincialism of which these 
authors and donators are guilty is, it seems to me, a 
gross ignorance of the organization of publishing and 
marketing of books, and of the habits of the reading 
public. And besides the wholesome fun which they 
naturally call forth, perhaps an acquaintance with them 
leads one to a more conscious gratitude that we have 
great publishing houses with reputations and policies, 
who give to books the prestige without which their 
careers would indeed be precarious. 

Louis I. BREDVOLD. 

Bristol, So. Dak., Feb. 17, 1911. 

ANOTHER MOURNER OF "MIZZELED." 
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

Your editorial note in the issue of Feb. 16, on the 
haunting associations of words, struck a most sym- 
pathetic chord in my heart. It is gratifying to find 
someone else who has been " mizzeled " as to the pro- 
nunciation of "misled," and who shares my grief at 
having our vocabulary robbed of a word so pregnant 
with meaning as " mizzeled," and given in its place a 
word so poor, cold, and undescriptive as " misled." 
You are the third person I know of who feels that way 
about it. I remember when I was about thirteen years 
old, hearing my father, who for many years occupied 
a seat on the bench of the Civil Court in New Orleans, 
tell of a brilliant young Creole lawyer using in his 
argument the word " mizzeled," to the complete mys- 
tification of the court. He afterwards asked the young 
lawyer to spell the word for him, and thereupon en- 
lightened him as to its real pronunciatiation. But I 
feel sure the young man was not so much mortified at 
his mistake as pained at his irreparable loss. Perhaps, 
however, in a better world where language is what it 
should be, our dear departed "mizzeled" will come 
into its own. LELIA M. RICHARDS. 

New York City, Feb. 20, 1911. 

THE NEWLY-DISCOVERED " BYRON MS." 

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) 

I have before me as I write a facsimile of the 
Byron MS." to the discovery of which you refer in 
your issue of February 1, and I have no hesitation in 
assuring you and your readers that this newly-found 
MS. is not in Byron's autograph. I have reached this 
conclusion after a careful study of the facsimile pub- 
lished in " The Pall Mall Gazette " and after a careful 
examination of facsimiles of Byron's handwriting at 
various periods in his life. The public ought to be 
informed, I believe, that the MS. now owned by Mr. 
Sawyer is, at the most, only a contemporary transcript 
of the original. SAMUEL A. TANNENBAUM. 

New York City, Feb. 18, 1911. 



154 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



00ks. 



A PUBLISHER OF THE OLD SCHOOL,.* 



An enthusiastic lover of literature and, in an 
inconspicuous way in early life, an author him- 
self, Alexander Macmillan lived to become the 
cause of authorship in others to a degree rarely 
attained by publishers. The writers, one day 
to be famous, whose genius he and his brother 
Daniel recognized and encouraged, and whose 
books they published, form a long and notable 
list. And yet he was without early advantages 
in education, being the son of a poor Scotch 
farmer with a large family, and being left 
fatherless at the age of five and forced to shift 
for himself when he was not more than fifteen 
or sixteen. 

He was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, Oct. 3, 
1818. The schools of the town gave him his 
education, and there he himself became "head- 
master of Scott's School" at the surprisingly 
tender age of sixteen. The succeeding few years 
are mostly a blank in our knowledge of his 
interests and occupations, but with his going to 
London in 1839 to join his older brother Daniel 
in the bookselling business the memorable period 
of his active and fruitful life begins. But some 
mention should be made of his youthful adven- 
ture as a sailor before the mast in a voyage to 
America in 1836, undertaken apparently in a 
fit of boyish unrest and seldom referred to by 
him in after life. In 1843 the brothers removed 
from London to Cambridge, and soon after- 
ward became publishers as well as booksellers, 
their first venture being " The Philosophy of 
Training," a short educational treatise by a 
Glasgow schoolmaster. Their acquaintance 
with Cambridge men and their keen interest 
in the literature of the day naturally led to 
their entering upon business as well as friendly 
relations with a number of the young writers 
about them. Books on education seemed at 
first to make the strongest appeal to them, but 
it was not long before they became interested 
in furthering the fortunes of such authors as 
Kingsley, Maurice, Trench, Thomas Hughes, 
and many others with what the shrewd Scotch 
brothers saw to be a promising future before 
them. The establishment of a London house 
or branch became a necessity with the rapid and 
unexpected success of their publishing business, 

* LIFE AND LETTERS OF ALEXANDER MACMILLAN. By 
Charles L. Graves. With portraits. New York : The Mac- 
millan Co. 



but before this had been accomplished the elder 
partner, Daniel, died, and the entire burden 
of the enterprise was imposed on Alexander's 
shoulders. In 1858 the London branch was 
opened, and in five years it grew to such im- 
portance as to necessitate its proprietor's re- 
moval to London, which thereafter remained 
the headquarters of the business. 

The records of Macmillan's life at Cam- 
bridge, and especially his connection with the 
Cambridge Working Men's College, show him 
to have been a man of large heart and generous 
impulses, of deep moral purpose, and of remark- 
able influence upon young men. Indeed, he 
seems to have been sought out as adviser and 
confidant by men of all ages. His soundness 
of judgment, his sincerity, his breadth of view, 
and his freedom from all selfish interest, secured 
for him an enviable position in the university 
circle and in the larger world about him. The 
regard cherished for him by many of the noted 
men of his time may be gathered from the wide 
correspondence drawn upon by Mr. Charles L. 
Graves in his " Life and Letters of Alexander 
Macmillan," which comes from the publishing 
house founded by the two brothers more than 
sixty years ago. One of the Cambridge friends 
of the younger brother has contributed his rem- 
iniscences of Alexander Macmillan. A short 
extract will be here not out of place, before we 
follow him to London and to the more engross- 
ing cares of his increasing business. 

" I only knew of his work in connection with the 
Cambridge Working Men's College from what he told 
me himself and hearsay from others, but it was he who 
really supplied the driving power which started and 
kept going its whole machinery. There were many 
distinguished men on the teaching staff of the institu- 
tion besides himself, among them Harvey Goodwin, 
J. B. Lightfoot, F. J. A. Hort, and J. B. Mayor, whose 
names overshadowed that of the secretary and lecturer 
Alexander Macmillan, but none of them, in Maurice's 
phrase, ' got hold of the working men ' if that were 
the true description of those who attended the classes 
in anything like the same degree." 

With the establishment of the London house 
came the serious consideration of the project 
for starting a magazine. Thomas Hughes had 
been the first to advise this step, at the time 
when his " Tom Brown's School Days " was 
about to be published. Its author much wished 
to have the story come out as a serial, and would 
have had its publishers found a magazine for the 
purpose. Finally, in 1859, the start was made, 
with David Masson as editor; and Macmillan's 
activity in securing the best of contributors for 
its pages very early assured its success. His 
son George writes of this period : 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



155 



"For the next five years [from 1858] it was my 
father's regular habit to spend each Thursday night 
in London, and to keep open house that evening in 
Henrietta Street for any one who liked to come and 
take part in a modest meal, followed by free and 
easy discussion of literary and other matters. These 
' Tobacco Parliaments ' were a very important feature 
in the development of the publishing business, espe- 
cially after the foundation of Macmillan's Magazine in 
November, 1859." 

The autographs inscribed on the bevelled edge 
of the round table at which the "parliament" 
sat include those of Tennyson, Herbert Spencer, 
Maurice, Hughes, Huxley, Masson, J. M. Lud- 
low, Franklin Lushington, G. S. Venables, 
F. T. Palgrave, Llewellyn Davies, William 
Allingham, Coventry Patmore, and Alfred 
Ainger. 

Macmillan was by nature an able captain of 
industry, and he always had the loyal support 
of his company of fellow-workers. He knew 
how to delegate authority, but he could also 
carry in his head an infinity of details and 
thought no part of the necessary routine of his 
business beneath him. The pains that he took 
with the reading and judging of submitted 
manuscripts was incredible, and his flair for 
the desirable thing to publish was of the keen- 
est. It is, however, a matter of record that 
Mr. Barrie's " Auld Licht Idylls" was rejected 
by this passionate lover of everything Scottish, 
though his biographer seeks to account for so 
inexplicable a blunder by conjecturing that the 
manuscript must have been sent in and passed 
upon when the head of the house was absent. 
This inference is rendered the more probable 
by reason of his practice of writing long and 
critical though sympathetic and friendly letters 
to accompany the return of any meritorious but 
unaccepted offering ; and no such letter to Mr. 
Barrie seems to have been discovered. An 
interesting letter to Mr. Thomas Hardy, dated 
1868 and filling more than three pages of close 
print, is reproduced by Mr. Graves. It ex- 
plains, convincingly and kindly, the publisher's 
reason for rejecting " The Poor Man and the 
Lady," and the author appears never to have 
questioned the justice of the verdict, as the 
story remained unpublished, being withheld 
even after George Meredith had passed upon it 
favorably. The course of self-education that 
had qualified Alexander Macmillan to be his 
own professional " reader " is thus referred to 
by Canon Ainger : 

" He had mastered the leading English prose classics, 
and they formed for him a secret standard and criterion 
of excellence which saved him in a remarkable way 
from false admirations, or from being deceived by that 



specious mediocrity which is perpetually appearing in 
fresh shapes above the horizon. A life-long enthusiasm 
for the best novels was at the root of his highest suc- 
cess as a publisher." 

In illustration of his discriminating taste in 
novels, let us quote from a letter written by 
him to James T. Fields in 1861. It touches 
sympathetically also on our struggle, then in 
progress, to preserve the Union and free the 
slave ; but that is apart from its main theme. 

" I wish much that Mr. Holmes would do a story 
which should be entirely one of natural manner and 
character, and have nothing of the wild or weird about 
it. The power of character-painting that is exhibited 
in the book is very high and very fine. The discrimina- 
tion and sharpness of his delineation are not to be sur- 
passed. The least interesting character is Elsie herself, 
and this only because it is conceived under circum- 
stances which are very partially true to fact and far 
from interesting if it were at least to modern and 
Christian times. The idea of the old Greek unavoid- 
able fate having its consummation through all sorts of 
pain and crime in spite of sorrow and repentance, has 
a kind of grandeur about it, but that a human being 
should take to poisoning because her mother saw a 
serpent has something at once painful and paltry about 
it. Buckle's view of whale blubber and starch being 
the extremes of man's moral and physical nature has a 
kind of interest as you can make your choice but how 
am I to prevent my wife from seeing a snake if she 
lives in a snake land ? " 

Six years after this letter to Fields the writer 
was welcomed in the hospitable home of the 
Boston publisher, on the occasion of an Amer- 
ican visit that brought with it a variety of 
agreeable experiences. Even at that time the 
number and wealth of our colleges and univer- 
sities struck him with astonishment. " Within 
the last six years," he observes, " more endow- 
ments have been made than have been made 
in England for the last two hundred." And 
further: "You go nowhere where princely 
munificence, bestowed by plain citizens, does 
not meet you." Gratifying also is the following 
in reference to the general prevalence of cour- 
tesy and refinement: 

" One expected to find culture and refinement at a 
place like Boston, where Longfellow who is the sweet- 
est and brightest of men Lowell, Holmes, Wendell 
Phillips, Emerson and the like live. But one finds 
almost as good everywhere. ... I met farmers in the 
prairies who had read and understood Carlyle, Mill, 
Buckle, Ruskin, Lecky, and authors of that class." 
It was in this visit that Macmillan became im- 
pressed with the possibilities of extending his 
business to America, as was not long afterward 
done with signal success ; but he could not fail to 
note that " the high tariff is a terrible drawback." 

Not unnaturally, in the course of his dealings 
with all sorts of authors, sound-minded and the 
reverse, he came in contact with the advocates of 



156 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



the Baconian theory of Shakespeare. Mr. Graves 
speaks, in this connection, of " the redoubtable 
Mrs. Pott's Baconian hypothesis," forgetful ap- 
parently of the honor, or dishonor, due to our own 
Delia Bacon, whose lunacy antedates Mrs. Pott's 
by nearly twenty years. As the publisher of the 
famous " Cambridge Shakespeare,',' Macmillan 
was very naturally approached by Mrs. Pott in 
the interest of her an ti- Shakespeare ideas, and 
he frankly and fully replied to her in a courteous 
letter beginning : " I am afraid your enterprise 
is hopeless. Bacon assuredly is not the author 
of Shakespeare's plays, and assuredly Shake- 
speare wrote them himself. I know the Essays 
well, and all Shakespeare well. They are the 
products of our greatest intellectual and moral 
age. It is impossible but that they should 
have much in common." A later patient letter 
to this persistent woman contains the following 
striking passage : 

" The question about Shakespeare's education is one 
requiring more space than I can give it. But I don't 
think we quite realise how rapidly a man like Shake- 
speare might assimilate new words and forms of life. 
I have known I know at present a man who travel- 
ling through a street or town with a number of 
fairly intelligent men and women will learn twenty 
times as much as any of them with even less apparent 
observation. Do you know the story of Houdiu, the 
conjurer, how in passing a shop window with hundreds 
of objects in it he could with a glance give an inven- 
tory of it?" 

How different this from Mr. Shaw's conception 
(in "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets") of a 
Shakespeare who, notebook in hand, painfully 
collects such scraps of useful material as fall in 
his way, chiefly from other men's lips ! 

Macmillan's official connection with Oxford 
as publisher to the University, and the honorary 
M.A. conferred upon him when that connection 
ceased, were matters in which he took pride. 
A letter from Mr. John Morley congratulating 
his friend on becoming " a brother M.A. of my 
ancient and honourable University" concludes 
thus : 

" No honour was ever better deserved, as I have often 
said. It is really a most pleasant bit of recognition for 
good service, and I know that you will be gratified by 
it. My only doubt is whether you ought not to have 
been made a Doctor of Divinity, but they do n't know 
you so well as I do." 

Mr. Graves's life of the younger of the 
brother publishers forms a fit companion to 
Thomas Hughes's memoir of the elder, and is 
in fact a much more elaborate and, in general 
interest, more valuable work. Alexander Mac- 
millan's was a character worthy of a full-length 
portrait, and his biographer has done him justice. 
The many letters and other interesting reminders 



of the noted writers of the day which the book 
contains make it a notable contribution to liter- 
ary history. To supplement the graphic strokes 
of the biographer's pen, the photographer and 
the artist have been called upon to show us 
clearly what manner of man, in his outward 
person, this enterprising and cultured Scotch 
publisher really was. p ERCy R BlCRNELL> 



ENGLISH LITERATURE IN SHAKESPEARE'S 
LIFETIME.* 



There is probably no one in this country 
better fitted for writing a history of English 
literature in the time of Shakespeare than Pro- 
fessor Schelling, whose work in the Elizabethan 
drama and the Elizabethan lyric, the two pre- 
eminent forms of expression in this age, is uni- 
versally authoritative. As in his ' 'Elizabethan 
Drama," the book before us " departs in method 
from the customary arrangement of material by 
way of annals. It has neither listed authors 
in the order of their birth, nor books in the 
chronology of their publication ; but it has 
sought to view the subject in large by the' 
recognition of a succession of literary move- 
ments, and varieties in poetry, drama, and prose, 
at times identified with a great name, at others 
grouped merely because of subject-matter or 
likeness in origin or purpose." Naturally, it 
is about the author whose name appears in the 
title that a considerable portion of the book is 
centered. Thus, the first chapter, which is fit- 
tingly headed " The Literature of Fact," and 
as such introduces the Elizabethan period by 
an account of contemporary works on history 
and adventure, opens up the source-books of 
Shakespeare's chronicle history plays. Follow- 
ing this come two chapters on "The Literature 
of the Coterie" and "The New Cultivated 
Prose," which prepare the way for Shakespeare's 
sonnets on the one hand and his early dramatic 
work on the other. The eight chapters on the 
drama, in which is compressed Professor Schel- 
ling's larger treatment, and with an eye single 
to the dramatic type rather than to the dra- 
matist, are grouped about the greatest poet 
of the age. The dominance of Shakespeare's 
genius is, of course, felt in the lyric, and even 
in the prose work of the period we are aware of 
his presence. The range of treatment is, there- 
fore, not so arbitrarily limited as it might at 
first strike the casual reader. 

* ENGLISH LITERATURE DURING THE LIFETIME OF 
SHAKESPEARE. By Felix E. Schelling, Professor in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. New York : Henry Holt & Co. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



157 



While it is true that a history of literature, 
no matter how limited the period considered, 
must be primarily concerned with details of 
historical fact, sources, influences, and the like, 
it is important that it should not neglect the 
more vital appeal of literature that which, 
after all, is worthy of historical treatment. 
Extensive appreciation in such a work as the 
one before us is necessarily impossible ; but it 
is easily apparent that the author has carried 
over into his pages his own fervid enthusiasm 
for the literature of this period. The book is 
not crowded with quotations, and those that do 
appear are admirably illustrative and are not 
stale from frequent use. Thus, the splendid 
stanzas on Belphosbe, in the second book of the 
" Faery Queen," furnish the text for the follow- 
ing eloquent appreciation : 

" Of such art we feel that it is loving and leisurely; 
its very progress is like that of the shuttle in the loom, 
now forward now back. Neither weaver nor poet can 
be conceived as hurried, or as otherwise than content 
to add, hour after hour and thread after thread, the 
beautiful colors that grow insensibly into a pattern, ever 
recurrent and conventional, but ever holding, as with a 
soft compulsion, our approval and affection." 

The vexed question of the sonnet Professor 
Schelling treats with his usual sanity. Whether 
we agree with him or not in his belief that 
"'Astrophel and Stella' had its inspiration in 
a passion sufficiently real to take on a genu- 
inely tragic tone to one of the ardent nature of 
Sidney," we are glad that he does not lead us off 
into unprofitable discussions which generally end 
where they had begun. Granted poetic genius, 
however, it hardly seems necessary to demand 
an actual passion as a sine qua non of genuine 
love poetry ; and it again seems unlikely that 
Sidney would dedicate to his wife sonnets cele- 
brating his passion for another woman, or that 
both his wife and his sister would regard with 
enthusiasm any such expression of his love. 
Especially sensible is Professor Schelling's dis- 
cussion of the Shakespearean sonnets. He does 
not seek to identify positively the " Mr. W. H." 
except that he refuses to regard him as William 
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. He clears the 
whole question of useless argument, and in a 
single paragraph presents the story of the 
sonnets, which, as he says, " is neither difficult 
nor involved." As to the dark lady, he is 
content and so should we be with the wise 
comment that " the court of Elizabeth was 
fuller [of sirens] than was ever the ^gean ; and 
for my part I should be sorry to have the mask 
of anonymity torn from the face of that immor- 
tal shadow." A]1 of which is in remarkable 



contrast to the pronouncements of the author of 
" The Man Shakespeare." 

The chapters on the Drama naturally begin 
and end in Shakespeare. The court as well as 
the popular drama leads up to his consummate 
accomplishment, for these embody in whole or 
in part the three influences which formed the 
drama, those of the classical drama and of 
the popular vernacular farce, and that of Italy 
and the spirit of romance. The plays of Shake- 
speare are each considered briefly and with 
reference chiefly to their literary qualities. 
Questions of structure and characterization are 
only touched upon ; more would not be possible 
in a volume of this character. The summaries 
and general criticisms at the close of the 
chapters are appreciative and scholarly. The 
theory that Shakespeare in his latest plays, the 
romances, was seriously affected by the new 
Fletcherian tragi-comedy, " and that this influ- 
ence worked to the detriment of Shakespeare's 
art, destroying especially the long lines of his 
characterization and reducing his art to the 
measure of the man he imitated," is disposed of 
by the vigorous protest against the "discovery" 
that " Shakespeare was prematurely old and 
decaying in his genius at forty-five, careless in 
his art, and content to leave his throne to sit on 
the footstools of his younger contemporaries." 
The protest is too strong. For it is impossible 
to maintain, in the face of the numerous resem- 
blances adduced by Professor Thorndike in the 
authoritative monograph on the subject, that 
Shakespeare's and Fletcher's dramatic romances 
were wholly independent of each other. Either 
Fletcher set a model for Shakespeare, or vice 
versa. Professor Schelling prefers to group 
these last plays of Shakespeare's with others like 
" Troilus and Cressida," " Timon of Athens," 
and " Pericles," which do not belong to any 
special category of history, tragedy, or comedy, 
and to scout the idea that he could have imitated 
or adopted the dramatic ideas of a younger con- 
temporary. But Shakespeare about this time and 
later was collaborating with Fletcher in " Henry 
VIII." and " The Two Noble Kinsmen," and in 
these plays the tone is Fletcherian rather than 
Shakespearean. Shakespeare never hesitated 
to adopt a dramatic fashion, and it was wholly 
consistent with his past conduct that he should 
try his hand at what he saw was popular with 
the London audiences. The fact remains that 
the late romances are not so great as the trag- 
edies, and it makes very little difference in our 
judgment of the intrinsic worth of these plays 
whether we say their lower rating is due to 



158 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



Shakespeare's imitation of a younger contem- 
porary or not. They are not less good when 
viewed as under the influence of Fletcher than 
when regarded as Shakespeare's original crea- 
tion. No one says that they are not superior to 
Fletcher's romances, or that the elder dramatist 
failed to improve upon the work of the younger. 
We might almost as well blame Shakespeare 
for adopting the revenge idea in "Hamlet" 
from Kyd's play on the same subject as criticize 
him for transforming the idea in the Fletcherian 
romances into the wonder of " The Tempest." 

Professor Schelling's work on the Lyric we 
already know, and his chapters in this volume 
are marked by the same discrimination and 
appreciation that have made his two lyrical 
anthologies familiar to scholars everywhere. 
Particularly good is his treatment of Donne, 
both as a corrective of a prevalent error about 
his relation to the so-called "metaphysical 
school," and as a just estimate of the salient 
qualities of his poetry. By his illumination of 
what had hitherto appeared commonplace, he 
deserves Jonson's eulogy, that he was " the 
first poet in the world in some things." " The 
golden summer " of the lyric of Herrick and his 
compeers we are shut out from by the limits of 
this volume ; but this lyric, which is more artistic 
and less spontaneous than the Shakespearean, 
may be omitted without causing too sharp a 
break in our survey of the poetic development 
of this period. In this and in other provinces 
of literary expression, the book preserves a 
proper unity of treatment. 

JAMES W. TUPPER. 



THE STEPHENS PRISON DIARY.* 



If the term "human document" were not 
taking a well-earned furlough, it might be 
applied with peculiar fitness to the diary before 
us, penned by Alexander H. Stephens, Vice- 
President of the Southern Confederacy, during 
his imprisonment at Fort Warren, in Boston 
Harbor, from May until October, 1865. There 
is no side of Stephens's nature which does not 
find expression, and the reader feels in every 
paragraph the impression of absolute sincerity. 
From the historical standpoint, the volume is of 
great value for the light which it throws upon 



* RECOLLECTIONS OF ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. His 
Diary, kept when a Prisoner at Fort Warren, Boston Har- 
bor, 1865 ; giving Incidents and Reflections of his Prison 
Life, and some Letters and Reminiscences. Edited, with a 
Biographical Study, by Myrta Lockett Avary. New York : 
Doubleday, Page & Co. 



the attitude of a large class of men who were 
ardent lovers of the Union and strongly opposed 
to the policy of secession, but whose political 
training made it inevitable that when once the 
die was cast they should go with their States 
and throw their energies into the cause of the 
Confederacy. In ability and character, Stephens 
stood easily at the head of this class of Southern 
statesmen ; and the motives and principles 
underlying his course are fully outlined in this 
Diary, especially in his copy of a long communi- 
cation to President Andrew Johnson, accom- 
panying a request for amnesty, under the special 
provisions of the Proclamation of Amnesty and 
Pardon issued on the 29th of May, 1865. 

As a man of highly cultivated tastes, 
Stephens's prison days were largely devoted to 
reading ; and we confess to a somewhat deeper 
interest in the books recorded than in the much 
talked about "pig-skin library " of a later date. 
Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella" and " Con- 
quest of Mexico" were purchased out of the 
little stock of gold coin brought with him, and 
carefully read, as various comments and appli- 
cations to current problems prove. The high 
state of culture and liberty to which Aragon 
had risen under an effectually decentralized 
system of government especially attracted his 
attention. A volume of the philosophical writ- 
ings of Cicero led to a comparison of the moral 
tone of the Roman with that of Paley, whose 
title to a place in the senior year of every 
college curriculum was never questioned in 
Stephens's time. The comparison is strongly 
in favor of Cicero. Bacon's Essays on the whole 
disappointed him, though he thought highly of 
the one on " Friendship," which in his opinion 
" embodies in a nutshell more true philosophy 
than all else I have seen upon this subject." 
Later, after a re-reading of Cicero's " De Ami- 
citia," he says : " This book is an almost fault- 
less production. Still, I believe Bacon's essay 
says more. But Bacon by no means supersedes 
Cicero. Bacon tears up the foundations of the 
philosophy, blasts the works from the quarries ; 
Cicero polishes these rough materials for use 
and ornament. Every young man should study 
Bacon on this subject ; then he should study 
Cicero." Aristotle on Economics pleased him, 
but the " Politics " he considered of little value. 
Particularly, Aristotle's failure to consider 
slaves as entitled to any standing as an element 
of society is criticised. Matthew Arnold's 
" Essays in Criticism " was presented to him, 
and he read the chapters on Spinoza and Marcus 
Aurelius, but with little sympathy. " I have not 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



159 



been able to satisfy myself as to this critic's 
general object. It seems to me that it is not 
good, that his spirit is evil, that he conceals 
himself as well as he can and attempts to incul- 
cate his own views through the teachings of 
others." A volume of F. W. Robertson's ser- 
mons was presented to him and read with high 
appreciation, as were certain volumes of Sweden- 
borg, in spite of his dissent in many particulars, 
and his conviction that Swedenborg was some- 
what unbalanced in mind. Many hours were 
given to study of various books of the Bible, 
and many of his comments thereon are surpris- 
ingly " liberal " for a strongly religious Southern 
man of that period. The inclusion of the Song 
of Solomon with the other books of the Bible he 
could not comprehend. He raises no question 
as to Solomon's authorship of the book, but fails 
entirely to find in it any evidence of allegorical 
intent. " It seems only such love-songs as 
Solomon may be supposed to have indulged 
himself in writing." To interpret it as refer- 
ring to Christ or the Christian Church seemed 
to him " not much short of impious." Burns 
and Coleridge were read occasionally. Tenny- 
son had never appealed to him until the effec- 
tive oral interpretation of a lady visitor revealed 
the beauty of Ms verse. 

In poor health, and troubled in mind over 
the failure of the authorities at Washington to 
pay any attention to his request for amnesty 
or parole, unable to get into communication 
with his family and friends at home, Stephens's 
prison days were gloomy enough, and without 
the company of his books he would probably 
have broken under the strain. Until the last 
few weeks of his imprisonment, his confinement 
was close, his quarters uncomfortable, and his 
food palatable only because he gave up the 
allotted rations altogether and supplied his 
table from other sources at his own expense. 
On July 26 he records : " Had a sort of row 
with bedbugs. Examined my bed to-day and 
found several." On August 2, " Had another 
row with bedbugs ; discovered a good many, 
though small. To none did I give quarter." 
August 11, " Got through with the biggest row 
I have yet had with bedbugs." And a week 
later, when commenting on the failure of a 
mouse which he had been feeding to come into 
sight, he adds : " It may see from its hiding- 
place what I do with the chinches, and draw 
conclusions which prompt it to keep out of my 
power. I have often felt sorry for what I have 
to do to these blood-suckers. Most willingly 
would I turn them loose and let them go away 



if they would go and stay, but this they will 
not do." 

There are many personal comments in these 
pages which one would gladly quote if there 
were room. The most severe judgment of all, 
though thoroughly kindly in spirit, is that 
passed upon Jefferson Davis. His opinion of 
the abilities of Grant was very high, and the 
comparative failure of Grant in the Presidency 
must have come as a great surprise to him. 
As most of the really level-headed leaders of 
the South, he came to have a very high regard 
for Lincoln. Greeley also shares in his admira- 
tion, though his dissent from Greeley's political 
principles led him to oppose the union of the 
Democrats with the Liberal Republicans in 
1872. There is no word of ill-tempered criticism 
for anybody. No kindlier and juster heart ever 
beat than that of Alexander H. Stephens. 

W. H. JOHNSON. 



THE EARLIEST LORDS OF THE OCEAX.* 



Ever since Newton and Wood delighted the 
western world with their discoveries of the 
ruined glories of the Mausoleum and the temple 
of Ephesian Artemis, the progress of Greek 
archaeology has been almost uninterrupted ; 
and its claims to the rank of an orderly and 
definite science are now universally recognized. 
Its splendid chapters have been written by 
Schliemann and Dorpfeld, at Hios, Mycenae, 
and Tiryns ; by the Germans at Olympia, the 
French at Delphi, and the British and Ameri- 
cans wherever they could get a chance to put 
in their spades ; and the annual reports of these 
various schools of classical study contain most 
comf orting assurance that new and substantial 
additions are yearly being made to our knowl- 
edge of the past. 

That a rich, if somewhat barbaric, civilization 
could be identified and confidently assigned to 
pre-Homeric times, is now generally accepted. 
"Mycenaean " was the name not altogether 
a satisfactory one given it ; and its dates 
were approximately placed at 15001000 B.C. 
With this as our furthest reach backward into 
the prehistoric past of Hellenic or pre-Hellenic 
races, we were perforce content until the end 
of the nineteenth century; but since the year 
1900 the extensive excavations carried on by 
Dr. Arthur Evans at Cnossus in Crete, together 
with other excavations at various Cretan sites, 

*THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE. By Rev. James Baikie. 
Illustrated. New York : The Macmillan Co. 



160 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



have combined to make it evident that this 
ancient " hundred-citied " island was for cen- 
turies the home of a brilliant civilization, which 
antedates the Mycenaean age as much as the 
latter does the time of historic Greece. In honor 
of the most famous traditional Cretan worthy, 
this civilization has been called " Minoan," and 
Dr. Evans has proposed a chronological table 
dividing its life into three periods, known as 
Early, Middle, and Late Minoan ; each period 
being subdivided into three divisions designated 
by Roman numerals. The whole stretch of 
time thus occupied ranges through two millen- 
nia, from 3000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. 

A number of publications have described 
and sought to appraise the results of these 
Cretan excavations. Dr. Evans himself has 
published full reports on his discoveries ; and 
books by Ronald M. Burrows (" The Dis- 
coveries in Crete "), A. Mosso (" Palaces of 
Crete and their Builders "), and Harriet Boyd 
Hawes (" Gournia, Vasiliki, and other Prehis- 
toric Sites "), have served to maintain the public 
interest and increase the public knowledge. 

The latest work dealing with this subject is 
the Rev. James Baikie's " The Sea Kings of 
Crete," a handsome volume, well-printed and 
illustrated. The author writes with keen but 
tempered enthusiasm of the "finds " at Cnossus, 
Phsestus, and Hagia Triada, and what they 
seem to show. That the Minoan dynasties were 
sea-lords of the 2Egean and eastern Mediter- 
ranean, he regards as fully established ; and the 
significant fact that the great palace structures 
were not fortified, as were those at Mycenae and 
Tiryns, only strengthens the conclusion that 
here we have to do with a power that depended 
on the " wooden walls " of its fleet for both 
aggression and defence. 

Sooner or later, of course, this floating bul- 
wark would fail ; and to some such crisis as 
this a sudden dash by pirates, or a concerted 
invasion by rivals who managed to out-sail and 
out-fight the Cretan fleet we are to refer the 
great catastrophe which destroyed the palace at 
Cnossus at the end of the period called Middle 
Minoan II. (about 1850 B.C.). On the ruins of 
this first palace a second seems to have arisen, 
which in turn met its destruction at the close of 
the Late Minoan II. period (circa 1400 B.C.). 

The temptation to construct history out of 
legend with the assistance of archaeological dis- 
coveries is always great : Schliemann, as is well 
known, yielded to it, and was sure that he had 
found the corpora ipsa of the Agamemnon and 
Clytemnestra mentioned by Homer and the 



Greek tragic writers. Something of this con- 
fidence confronts us in the pages of Mr. Baikie's 
book, as where he contends for a historic 
background to the terrible story of the human 
tribute paid by Athens to Minos of Crete, and 
of the slaying of the Minotaur by the Attic 
hero Theseus. His support for this position is 
derived largely from the frequency of bull- 
combats and the suggestion of bull-headed 
divinities on the various works of art found 
during the progress of the excavations. 

More conservative and acceptable is one of 
the concluding paragraphs of the book : 

" No one now dreams of hesitating to accept the 
statements of Herodotus and Thucydides as to the 
great sea-empire of Crete. Whoever the Minos to 
whom they allude may have been whether he was 
actually a single great historical monarch who brought 
the glory of the Kingdom to its culmination, or whether 
the name was the title of a race of kings, is a matter of 
small moment. In either case the sea-power of Minoan 
Crete was a reality which endured, not for one reign, 
but for many reigns; and it is practically certain that, 
during a long period of history, the whole sea-borne 
trade of Europe, Asia, and Africa was in the hands of 
these, the earliest lords of the ocean." 

The relations of Crete with Greece, the 
Cyclades, and Egypt, are discussed and illus- 
trated by parallelisms in pottery, sculpture, and 
metal-working ; and about thirty excellent half- 
tone plates show the principal architectural and 
artistic results of the various excavations. The 
book is written in an intelligent and entertain- 
ing style, which, added to the fascination of the 
subject, makes it as readable as any romance. 
JOSIAH RENICK SMITH. 



THE MEMOIRS or HEESTE.* 

" Heinrich Heine's Memoirs," in two beauti- 
ful thin, though comprehensive, volumes, doubt- 
less give the best opportunity of meeting the 
poet face to face that has yet been offered in 
English. The title is confusing, for the term 
Memoiren was preempted by Heine's small 
autobiographicaJ fragment first printed in 1884. 
It was the idea of Karpeles to publish (in 1888) 
an extended cento of fragments of Heine's let- 
ters, verse, and prose, arranged in chronological 
order, under the more admissible title, " Auto- 
biographic." In the main the difficult English 
translations are spirited and idiomatic, and the 
metrical form of the lyrics is preserved, even 
though rhymes like "daughter: about her," 

* HEINRICH HEINE'S MEMOIRS. Edited by Gustav 
Karpeles. English translation by Gilbert Cannan. In two 
volumes. New York : John Lane Company. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



161 



" undoing: ruin," go to the verge of what may 
be permitted. It is necessary to add that the 
badness of the work in many other respects 
goes far beyond this limit. 

Karpeles' plan, for which the translator is 
not responsible, is a horror to the professional 
scholar, and to the philologist an abomination. 
Without guidance of notes, a " harmony " is 
forced by methods more violent than those em- 
ployed by the most perverse theological zeal. 
Karpeles' lack of method has made a sorry 
mess of it, enhanced (let it be stated without 
rancor) by a more than British indifference to 
minute accuracy on the part of the translator. 
Chapters, divisions, and titles are purely arbit- 
rary. It seems impossible that any editor could 
omit the lyric " Ein Jiingling liebt ein M'dd- 
chen" the very epitome of the most telling ex- 
perience of Heine's life, or " A us alien Mdrchen 
winkt es," that sublimated quintessence of the 
cruel conflict between romanticism and reality. 
The poet's saucy irrelevancies, his daring wit, 
even his word-plays, vulgarities, and blasphemies, 
are so much a part of himself that a Heine, 
with these completely purged away, would be 
no Heine at all. Omissions are often posited 
where none occur, while again and again sep- 
arate letters and lyrics are macerated into one 
undifferentiated substance, poems are mutilated 
with no indication, sentences torn limb from 
limb and grafted one upon another in a way 
that belittles Mr. Edison's most heroic tales 
of operative surgery. Often a new paragraph 
is placed so as to be related only to the im- 
mediately preceding text, whereas it applies, in 
fact, to a section that has vanished without a 
trace. Because of its allusion to the " Trag- 
edies " (published 1823), Karpeles may be 
excused for including under the documents of 
1823 a letter written on June 7, 1826, but the 
bare-faced change of the date to "June 7, 1823 " 
is intolerable. Equally unpardonable is the 
crass stupidity shown in translation, and by no 
means limited to proper names. Liibtheen ap- 
pears as "Liibthern," Bovden as "Booden," 
Harburg as " Hamburg," Adolf Milliner is 
leveled to " Miiller," the great surgeon Dief- 
fenbach comes off with " Dreffenbach," while 
the famous lexicographer Adelung suffers a 
sea-change from a living person into " the bur- 
den of the aristocracy." Other examples of 
Mr. Cannan's art of translation are : biderbe, 
" solemnly "; Oratorium, " exhortation "; be- 
wegliche Figur, " mobile face "; ebenfalls, 
" ever ''; geheimnisvolle Wonne, " sweet glee." 
Klagende Flamme, in the well-known stanzas 



in Deutschland, certainly does not mean " flame 
of mourning," and so the long series sounds 
every note from the irritating inaccuracy of 
Er war von alien Menschen derjenige, den ich 
am meisten auf dieser Erde geliebt, "Of all 
men he was the most beloved on this earth," to 
the inestimable climax of the repeated rendering 
of Heine's title Die Bdder von Lucca as " The 
Bathers of Lucca." Into this fair book are 
also set such gems of English as " This could 
however anyhow not suffice to-day," and "almost 
by one half to destroy these notes." 

But none of these ineptitudes, nor even the 
disconcerting sum of them all, can offset the 
perennial allurement of Heine's baffling and 
elusive personality. Perhaps more than any 
other, he is the vibrant sensorium of an acutely 
susceptible consciousness which makes the mod- 
ern man of culture the recipient of a myriad of 
aesthetic impressions undiscovered in simpler 
ages. He caught quick glimpses of new truths, 
of shifted relations. He may, indeed, be consid- 
ered the first man of the future, and his life was 
rendered wretched chiefly by its rupture with 
the past. For pleasure or pain, all impressions 
reacted upon him from contrary poles : he thrilled 
to the majestic symbolism of the Catholic church, 
yet Christianity had never a more keen oppo- 
nent. He was awed by the mysterious sainthood 
of woman, and detested her as a cold-blooded 
serpent ; he was the soul of chivalry, while 
destitute of an elementary sense of honor ; his 
insatiable appetency for supreme culture proved 
not incompatible with a cynical vulgarity. No 
artist has more masterfully exploited the sim- 
plest poetical materials, even though we admit 
that his confession of a unique debt to Wilhelm 
Miiller is just. Goethe rested in serene and 
severe Hellenism, whereas Heine went forward, 
and his soul is still marching on, to modernism. 
The fascinating life-panorama of this intensely 
sentient being is unrolled upon these handsome 
pages, and every line tingles with interest to 
the modern combatant. 

The poetry of the future will hardly derive 
its spirit from the bemusing opiates of oriental 
or Celtic romanticism ; the sweet deceptions of 
the past will yield place to the clear actualities 
of scientific doctrine, and to the task of recon- 
ciling man to his own existence. Modern poetry 
will rest upon realism, not the discarded type 
which dwells upon the abnormal and the revolt- 
ing, but that which fixes its calm vision upon the 
dignities of life, and renders them more acces- 
sible to men. It will choose as its chief subject- 
matter not merely " things as they are " but to 



162 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



quote a valued human document not yet fully 
superseded " whatsoever things are true, what- 
soever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
report." JAMES TAFT HATFIELD. 



RECENT POETRY.* 

The fact that Mr. Eden Phillpotts is of the kin of 
Mr. Thomas Hardy has been noted by all readers of 
the two men's novels. It is evidenced anew by the 
volume of poems, entitled " Wild Fruit," that the 
former writer has now published. The title is well- 
chosen, for the poems have a wilding flavor that sets 
them far apart from the garden products of most 
versifiers. In this, they are suggestive of Mr. 
Hardy's verses, as well as in their unconventional 
phrasing and their ironic tang. There is a fine 
sardonic humor in this song of " The Owl and the 
Epitaph " : 

" The moon shone in the midnight sky 
As an old brown owl went gliding by. 
He lighted upon a churchyard tree, 
And shouted aloud right eerily 

' Hoity-hoo-hoo, 

Toity-too-too, 

Hullabaloo ! 
The graves are many, the mice are few.' 

" Beneath his perch there stood a stone 
Where a young, dead woman lay alone. 
The owl conned over her epitaph, 
Then, blinking his eyes, he began to laugh 
4 Hoity-hoo-hoo, 
Toity-too-too, 
Hullabaloo! 
This was a fine damsel that once I knew. 

* WILD FRUIT. By Eden Phillpotts. New York .-John 
Lane Company. 

THE VOICE OF THE ANCIENT. By Cyril Scott. London : 
J. M. Watkins. 

THIRTY-SIX POEMS. By James Elroy Flecker. London: 
The Adelphi Press, Ltd. 

VERSES. ByV. Oxford: B. H. Blackwell. 

A SON OF CAIN. By James A. Mackereth. New York: 
Longmans, Green, & Co. 

CHORDS OF THE ZITHER. By Clinton Scollard. Clinton, 
N. Y. : George William Browning. 

SONGS AND SONNETS. By Webster Ford. Chicago : 
' The Rooks Press. 

LAVENDER AND OTHER VERSE. By Edward Robeson 
Taylor. San Francisco : Paul Elder & Co. 

THE TOWN DOWN THE RIVER. A Book of Poems. 
By Edwin Arlington Robinson. New York : Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons. 

BEAUTY'S LADY, AND OTHER VERSES. By Donald 
Robertson, Actor. Chicago : Ralph Fletcher Seymour Co. 

HERBS AND APPLES. By Helen Hay Whitney. New 
York : John Lane Company. 

AEGEAN ECHOES, AND OTHER VERSES. By Helen Coale 
Crew. Boston : The Poet Lore Co. 

THE EARTH CRY, AND OTHER POEMS. By Theodosia 
Garrison. New York : Mitchell Kennerley. 

LIPS OF Music. By Charlotte Porter. New York : 
Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 

CACTUS AND PINE. Songs of the Southwest. By Sharlot 
M. Hall. Boston : Sherman, French & Co. 



44 ' " Here lies the dust of Mercy Ann, 
The faithful wife of Jonathan Cann. 
Such virtue could not inhabit clay, 
So Heaven hath plucked the flower away." 

Hoity-hoo-hoo, 

Toity-too-too, 

Hullabaloo ! 
But, gentlemen all, the tale is n't true. 

" ' Dear Mercy Ann, the lovely elf, 
Was another night-bird, like myself. 
Look in the woods by the manor gate : 
You'll find a cot in a ruinous state. 

Hoity-hoo-hoo, 

Toity-too-too, 

Hullabaloo ! 
Her gravestone should really be writ anew. 

" 4 " Here lies the dust of Mercy Ann, 

The faithful mistress of young Squire Mann. 
She gave him five years of joy and bliss, 
And now she's a flower in the realms of Dis." 

Hoity-hoo-hoo, 

Toity-too-too, 

Hullabaloo ! 
There's a mouse on her grave ! ' And down he flew." 

As an example of a sincere and purely serious 
lyric we may quote " The Kisses " : 

44 Your gentle kiss fell light upon my lips 
As when a hovering Vanessa sips 
One instant and away. 

Oh, blessed touch ! How little then I guessed 
What seeds of aching grief and wild unrest 
Were sowed that summer day. 

" But now the secret garden of my heart 
Can scarcely hold them ; every throbbing part 
Blooms with a mad desire. 
Oh, precious woman of the misty eyen, 
Would to dear God that futile kiss of mine 
Had planted such a fire. 

" Yours carried life and flying seed of flame 
Until the very letters of your name 
Chime out a glorious song. 
Mine found no fruitful resting-place to'dwell, 
But humbly sank to that sad haunt of hell 
Where sterile kisses throng." 

We must find space also for one of the fine sonnets 
of this poet, and there is no fitter example than this 
heartfelt tribute to the memory of Swinburne, a 
brother-poet : 

" Children and lovers and the cloud-robed sea 
Shall mourn him first ; and then the mother-land, 
Weeping in silence by his empty hand 
And fallen sword, that flashed for Liberty. 
Song-bringer of a glad new minstrelsy, 
He came and found joy sleeping and swift fanned 
Old pagan fires, then snatched an altar brand 
And wrote, ' The fearless only shall be free ! ' 
Oh, by the flame that made thine heart a home, 
By the wild surges of thy silver song, 
Seer before the sunrise, may there come 
Spirits of dawn to light this aching wrong 
Called Earth ! Thou saw'st them in the f oreglow'roam ; 
But we still wait and watch, still thirst and long." 

This is a tempting volume to quote from, and we do 
not find it an easy one to lay aside. It reveals a 
poetical faculty, the plenitude of which we had 
hardly suspected from the stray pieces by Mr. 
Phillpotts that had hitherto come to our attention. 
Perhaps we shall gradually come to think of him, 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



163 



in the end, as we are gradually coming to think of 
Mr. Hardy as an artificer of more durable things 
in verse than in prose. 

Mr. Cyril Scott, in " The Voice of the Ancient," 
sings such strains as these : 

" I lie in lenitive shades of cedar boughs, 

Replenishing richly my soul in Elysian fragrancy, 
Watching my dreams lullabying in roseate vagrancy, 
To zephyrs, that kiss with neetareous moisture my brows." 

The poem is styled " Supra Celestia," and is much 
too supercelestial for comprehension by the common 
mind. Sometimes, however, Mr. Scott's thought 
is more nearly accessible, as in " The Awakening," 
with its imaginings concerning the experiences of 
the soul that has just passed through the gateway 
of death : 

" Awake the soul is lifted from her conch of roses, 

Of myriad buds to earth unknown, 
Of colours more alive than ever earth discloses, 
Far richer, purer, paler, more full-blown. 

" No sweetness can expound terrestial joy is sadness, 

All sleeping only wakes to strife ; 
But here each thought and sense unites in perfect 

gladness, 
And man perceives that life was never Life. 

" Now was the gentlest moment time had ever moulded, 

Now as the soul unveiled her eyes, 
To find herself in countless virgin arms enfolded, 
Back from her sojourn in the vale of sighs." 

Mr. James Elroy. Flecker is the author of 
" Thirty-six Poems," the first of them being these 
wistful lines " To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence ": 

" I who am dead a thousand years, 

And wrote this sweet archaic song, 
Send you my words for messengers 
The way I shall not pass along. 

" I care not if you bridge the seas, 

Or ride secure the cruel sky, 
Or build consummate palaces 
Of metal or of masonry. 

" But have you wine and music still, 

And statues and a bright-eyed love, 
And foolish thoughts of good and ill, 
And prayers to them who sit above? 

" How shall we conquer ? Like a wind 

That falls at eve our fancies blow, 
And old Ma*>nides the blind 

Said it three thousand years ago. 

" O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, 

Student of our sweet English tongue, 
Read out my words at night, alone ; 
I was a poet, I was young. 

" Since I can never see your face, 

And never shake you by the hand, 
I send my soul through time and space 
To greet you. You will understand." 

This is so encouraging an opening that it has 
tempted us to read the volume from beginning to 
end, and we have found each one of the remaining 
thirty-five poems marked by simple sincerity and 
something like distinction of phrasing. Death is a 
favorite theme with Mr. Flecker, but it does not 
leave him merely moody ; rather does it move him 
to concrete and often striking imaginative expres- 
sion. This is noteworthy in such poems as " The 



Town without a Market," " Felo de Se," and "No 
Coward's Song." An example brief enough for re 
production is " Tenebris Interlucentem ": 

" A linnet who had lost her way 
Sang on a blackened bough in Hell, 
Till all the ghosts remembered well 
The trees, the wind, the golden day. 

* At last they knew that they had died 
When they heard music in that land, 
And someone there stole forth a hand 
To draw a brother to his side." 

In quite a different vein is the spirited " War Song 
of the Saracens," of which these are the closing 
verses : 

" A mart of destruction we made at Jalula where men 

were afraid, 
For death was a difficult trade, and the sword was a 

broker of doom ; 
And the spear was a desert physician who cured not a 

few of ambition, 
And drave not a few to perdition, with medicine bitter 

and strong : 
And the shield was a grief to the fool, and as bright as a 

desolate pool, 
And as straight as the rock of Stamboul when their 

cavalry thundered along; 
For the coward was drowned with the brave when oui 

battle sheered up like a wave, 
And the dead to the desert we gave, and the glory to God 

in our song." 

" The Masque of the Magi " and the two miracles, 
" Joseph and Mary " and " A Miracle of Bethle- 
hem," are very simple things, but they have just the 
touch of na'ivetS needed in such imitative exercises. 
With these poems must be grouped the story of 
"Mary Magdalen." Why, asks the poet of the 
penitent, " didst thou renounce thy scented pride ? " 

" She trembled, and her eyes grew dim : 
' For love of Him, for love of Him/ " 

The contents of this unpretending volume are 
indeed treasure-trove. 

The author of " Verses by V " knows how to put 
his thoughts in a striking way, as these lines upon 
" Albert Diirer " may witness : 

" Had earth no flowers, and were no women fair 

In many-gabled Nuremberg, the day 
Whei. Durer's touch made ugliness seem rare, 

And gnarled strength worthier than lithe limbs at play? 

Were his eyes blinded, when in beauty lay 
All dreaming Italy, in whose blue air 
He saw the southern faces, Art's despair, 

And saw the antique statues, Time's display ? 
Yet on those eyes how many a May had risen ! 

How oft had they beheld the beech unsheathing 
Her tassel-tufts, and from their winter prison 

Seen break the wood-flower and the wild-rose wreathing! 
Or had his vision of the Heaven so dazed him, 
That earthly loveliness no more amazed him?" 

The author can also be vigorous as well as striking, 
as his " Bismarck " poem attests : 

" The earth runs lighter in her daily round : 

Bismarck is dead ! 
Call him high names, and fill the streets with sound ! 

And o'er his head 

Carve bronze and marble in a likeness grim ! 
We laugh secure, for Earth has done with him. 



164 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



"0 Germany! land of music! Whom 

Men deemed of yore 
Land of high dreams, the loveliness of home, 

Proud, peaceful poor. 

Who learned by haunted rivers tender moods, 
And thoughts unworldly in enchanted woods ! 



" Arise ! arise ! shake off the accursed spell ! 

Forget the craft 
From Hell inspired and now returned to Hell ! 

Once more let waft 

The breath of Heaven on thy distempered brow ! 
Germany ! Sister ! Europe calls thee now ! " 

When the author writes without those staccato 
effects, he achieves such simple distinction as the 
stanzas in "A Great Soul" exemplify: 

" Brother, methinks if I could see 

The soul within your breast, 
'Twould bear the likeness of a tree 

Upon a lonely crest, 
Where all the winds of heaven are free, 

And never all at rest. 

" It standeth, as the mountain stands, 
Unshaken, steadfast, strong ; 

It looketh down on all the lands ; 
ltd shade lies deep and long ; 

And all the soft-winged heavenly bands 
Fill it with sweetest song. 

" Yet never hath it peace ; for, lo, 

No time is quite so still 
But that some little wind doth blow 

Some leaflet to its will. 
And yet it groweth and shall grow 

An ensign on the hill." 

Vs utterance is inclined to he a little thick, just 
escaping the quality of the purely lyric note, but he 
is frequently happy in his graver measures. This 
may be illustrated by quoting one of the briefer 
sections of his long poem in the " In Memoriam " 
stanza, entitled To the Unknown God " : 

" Awake, awake, and break the dream, 
man ! and think of God no more 
As what in man ye might adore, 
The saintly walk, the moral scheme ! 

" If strife ye see in all around, 

Seek Him in war no less than peace ; 
If death and sorrow never cease, 
The grave too must be holy ground 1 . 

" Aye, I would even dare avow, 

Where man sees only human sin, 
That God himself may be therein 
Fulfilled oh, past our thinking how ! " 

The poem called " A Son of Cain," which sup- 
plies the name for Mr. Mackereth's volume, is not 
discovered until we reach the closing pages, al- 
though its merits entitle it to a place in the fore- 
front of the collection. It turns out to be a grim 
and powerful ballad on the model of " The Ancient 
Mariner." 

" I cursed her for her trickery wrought 

In hell and devil-crowned ; 
I tracked her foulsome, plotting thought 

From bound to bitter bound 
And cursed. He entered, and we fought 

We fought with little sound. . . . 



" O'er Windal moor the day w^B sped. 

A fell-sheep 'gan to bleat. 
I saw that all the west was red ; 

Grey-still the village street. 
There was a tumult in my head ; 

A silence at my feet. 

" I saw a fly beat on the pane. 

I saw a wreath of smoke 
Curl blue 'gainst evening cliffs, and gain 

The sky : no passion broke 
The calm of nature, that in pain 

Stared, stared and never spoke. 

" God, it was so very still. 

The very thought was heard 
Moving about the brain ; the will 

Bent numbed ; the cold blood stirred 
Like memory after death : so still. 
Loud in that vivid void of ill 

A playful kitten purred." 

This ballad is clearly the work of a poet, as is also, 
in another mood, the long reflective ode on " The 
Gods That Pass and Die Not," of which we quote 
the closing section : 

" The gods depart, but thou, Earth, art young, 

And constant to the Source of Now and Then ; 
To That which was and is thy psalm is sung, 

Mother of men. 
And all thy days are patient, and thy power 

Abideth though the beauteous gods depart, 
Mother, who still dost cherish at thy heart 
Thy child the thinker and the thoughtless flower, 
Mankind fails not ; winds laugh, and woodlands blow 

Still, hope immortal fans abiding mirth ; 
Only the beckoning gods, far-summoned, go, 

And pass with poignant splendour from the earth.'' 

Another fine poem of this type is the " Ode on the 
Passing of Autumn." Altogether Mr. Mackereth's 
volume will well reward him who ventures into its 
pages. 

Mr. Edwin Arlington Robinson, the author of 
" The Town down the River " is a parsimonious 
poet, but when he gives us dole of his riches, we 
know that the coin is no counterfeit. He is a 
reticent poet, but a few of his words will outweigh 
the fluent utterance of the more voluble. Witness 
these lines about Lincoln : 

" For he, to whom we had applied 
Our shopman's test of age and worth, 
Was elemental when he died, 
As he was ancient at his birth ; 
The saddest among kings of earth, 
Bowed with a galling crown, this man 
Met rancor with a cryptic mirth, 
Laconic and Olympian. 

" The love, the grandeur, and the fame 
Are bounded by the world alone ; 
The calm, the smouldering, and the flame 
Of awful patience were his own : 
With him they are forever flown 
Past all our fond self-shadowings, 
Wherewith we cumber the Unknown 
As with inept, Icarian wings." 

Witness also these words of Napoleon, half-delirious 
upon his death-bed at St. Helena : 

" What ruinous tavern-shine 
Is this that lights me far from worlds and wars 
And women that were mine ? 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



165 



Where do I say it is 

That Time has made my bed ? 

What lowering outland hostelry is this 

For me the stars have disinherited ? 

An island, I have said : 
A peak, where fiery dreams and far desires 
Are rained on, like old fires : 
A vermin region by the stars abhorred, 
Where falls the flaming word 
By which I consecrate with nnsuccess 
An acreage of God's forgetfulness, 
Left here above the foam and long ago 
Made right for my duress ; 
Where soon the sea. 
My foaming and long-elamoriiig enemy, 
Will have within the cryptic, old embrace 
Of her triumphant arms a memory." 

Mr. Robinson's attitude toward life in its conven- 
tional manifestations is bitter or contemptuous, his 
expression almost acrid, and yet his vision is trans- 
figured with gleams of idealism. The City of God 
may be as yet unbuilded, but somewhere possibly 
in this land of ours its foundations are being laid. 
Even so godless a spot as Broadway may prove to 
be its site. 

" When in from Delos came the gold 
That held the dream of Pericles, 
When first Athenian ears were told 
The tumult of Euripides, 
When men met Aristophanes, 
Who fledged them with immortal quills 
Here, where the time knew none of these, 
There were some islands and some hills. 

" When Rome went ravening to see 
The sons of mothers end their days, 
When Flaccus bade Leuconoe 
To banish her Chaldean ways, 
When first the pearled, alembic phrase 
Of Maro into music ran 
Here there was neither blame nor praise 
For Rome, or for the Mantnan. 

' When Avon, like a faery floor 
Lay freighted, for the eyes of One, 
With galleons laden long before 
By moonlit wharves in Avalon 
Here, where the white lights have begun 
To seethe a way for something fair, 
No prophet knew, from what was done, 
That there was triumph in the air.'' 

We may not chide for his too infrequent stage en- 
trances the poet who has grave and measured dis- 
course like this. There is hardly another American 
singer now left us who has equal right to say 

" Mon verre n'est pas grand, mais je bois dans mon verre," 

and whose thought has such quintessential purity of 
distillation. 

Mr. Clinton Scollard has heard the call of the 
East once more, as he tells us in so many words : 

" I chafed at the gyves that bound under the western star, 
When over the welter of waves a clear voice called from 

afar. 

And I said ' I will seek once more the Nile and the nen- 
uphar.' 

" So I strode to the long, low quays, and boarded a deep- 
decked bark 



And we plowed through the phosphor seas by the beacons 

of day and dark 
Till we raised the Gate of the East with the sweep of its 

harbor arc.'' 

The result of this outing is a volume of thirty lyrics, 
" Chords of the Zither," the product of happy mus- 
ings under distant skies. We think particularly 
well of '^ Stars over Egypt " : 

" We are the orbs eternal, 

Lighting the outer void. 
Blossoms forever vernal, 

Aster and asteroid ; 
Isis and Osiris 

And Ammoii, what are they '? 
They are as marsh fire is ; 

We are for aye and a day ! 

" The Scrape um solemn, 

The Sphinx with brooding lid. 
Capital and column 

Pylon and pyramid, 
Memnon's silenced singing 

Under the dawning ray 
They are as swallows winging; 

We are for aye and a day ! 

" When ne'er a Pharos flaming 

Brightens the whelmed earth, 
When man shall have done with naming 

The creatures of mortal birth. 
When all the creeds have crumbled 

As crumbles the potter's clay, 
We shall abide nnhumbled; 

We are for aye and a day ! " 

Mr. Scollard's little books of song come to us with 
tolerable frequency, and they are always welcome ; 
even more welcome than most of them is this col- 
lection, based upon an old inspiration renewed. 

The collection of " Songs and Sonnets " by Mr. 
Webster Ford may be illustrated by the pair of 
roundels entitled " Separated " : 

" I walked afield with your sweet soul 
(If heaven past joy could yield) 
And sought again the wooded knoll ; 
I walked afield. 

No longing ever yet was healed 

By autumn's sunny dole, 

Nor eyes by a remembrance sealed. 

You seemed within the aureole 
Half seen and half concealed, 
That o'er the aching distance stole ; 
I walked afield. 

Your woman's soul, its tender grief, 
Like autumn winds which toll 
Sweet odors from this flowering fief, 
Your woman's soul 

Comes back, like music, to console 
With red bloom and gold leaf, 
Love's restless nncontrol. 

For hearts that burn, a rapture brief 
That finds nor bourn nor goal 
Save in dream days and gathered sheaf ; 
Your woman's soul." 

The plaintive strain of Mr. Ford's decorous but 
deeply-felt verse is very moving, and his graceful 
measures have a charm that is genuine and com- 
pelling. 



166 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



Dr. Edward Robeson Taylor is ene of our best 
sonnetteers a fact which we have had previous 
occasion to point out and his work is both rich 
in thought and wide in imaginative sweep. From 
among the sonnets which make up the greater part 
of his " Lavender and Other Verse," the following 
particularly fine example may be chosen, its subject 
being Captain Amundsen's ship "GjOa," now the 
property of San Francisco, and preserved in Golden 
Gate Park : 

" At last I rest in peace where nevermore 

The waves shall whip my stout-resisting side ; 
Ignobly rest, and swell with bitter pride 
As casual eyes all lightly scan me o'er 

Me, that have dared the Arctic's awful shore, 
And with the bold Norwegian as my guide 
Sailed the dread Pass to other keels denied 
Where we shall dwell with Fame forevermore 

Ah, it is pleasant here with birds and trees, 
With laughter-loving children, and the sea's 
Keen winds that romp upon my orphaned deck ; 

Yet, mid this fatal peace at times I yearn 
To face again the dangers of a wreck ; 
To see once more the great Aurora burn." 

Many of Dr. Taylor's sonnets are occasional, and 
few men have as happy a gift for paying this sort 
of tribute to a person or a celebration ; others are of 
an abstract or philosophical cast. One group gives 
the poet's impressions of certain paintings by Mr. 
Keith ; another is concerned with literary person- 
alities, from Landor to Charles Warren Stoddard. 
We are also given, in the closing section of the 
volume, further examples of Dr. Taylor's quality 
as a translator from the French, these pieces 
including Chantecler's " Hymn to the Sun," Hugo's 
" Ce qu'on entend sur la Montagne," and some of 
the best things of Be*ranger, Musset, and Leconte 
de Lisle. 

We have long known Mr. Donald Robertson as 
one of the most accomplished and intellectual of 
our actors, sympathetic in the interpretation of the 
poetry of others, but we had not known him as a 
poet on his own account until " Beauty's Lady and 
Other Verses " came into our hands. How gen- 
uine is his gift may be evidenced by this Rossettian 
sonnet : 

" When dusk has spread his tent where Day had been 
And Nature's altar lamps are trimmed anew, 
When from the folded wings of Strife, the dew 

Of tears repentant wipes the dust of Sin, 

In such an hour, shall she come calmly in 

And lay her lips on mine and kiss me ? Through 
That kiss shall I not wholly know the true 

Beatitude of Love, life prays to win ? 

Then all the tangled cords of troubled Care 

Shall fall from off my soul set free through her, 

Together we shall breathe the open air 
Of Truth, I too like her its worshipper ; 

Ah, God ! must this not be ? but with quick breath 

Sharp on my mouth instead the kiss of Death ? " 

The greater number of Mr. Robertson's poems are 
in the sonnet-form, of which he displays consider- 
able mastery. As an example of what he can do in 
lighter measures, we quote this simple " Song": 



" Across the rainbow bridge of dreams 

My Lady went a-maying, 
And left me on the hither side 
Among the graves of hopes that died, 

And wild desires still baying 
The moon of borrowed pleasures' gleams. 

" Across the crystal stream of tears, 

My Lady's voice is ringing, 
And through the dark aisles of my mind 
An echo answers, like a blind 

Canary sadly singing 
Remembrance of the sunlit years." 

Mrs. Whitney's vivid and pregnant verses may be 
illustrated by these two stanzas in "The Unburied": 

" In the wood the dead trees stand, 
Dead and living, hand to hand, 
Being Winter, who can tell 
Which is sick, and which is well ? 
Standing upright, day by day 
Sullenly their hearts decay 
Till a wise wind lays them low, 
Prostrate, empty, then we know. 

" So thro' forests of the street, 
Men stand dead upon their feet, 
Corpses without epitaph ; 
God withholds his wind of wrath, 
So we greet them, and they smile, 
Dead and doomed a weary while, 
Only sometimes thro' their eyes 
We can see the worm that plies." 

In this new volume, called "Herbs and Apples," 
the author again proves herself a true poet, of the 
sort that we could ill spare, although we could 
spare without a pang the figures which here serve 
as illustrations. 

" ^Egean Echoes and Other Verses " is a collec- 
tion of refined and thoughtful poems by Mrs. 
Helen Coale Crew. As the title indicates, Mrs. 
Crew's inspiration has been drawn chiefly from a 
study of the classics, and, rightly considered, the 
production of such a small volume as this constitutes 
a more convincing defence of classical studies than 
many stout volumes of prosy argument. For here 
is concrete evidence that the spirit of Hellas still 
exists as a shaping and vitalizing power in the 
modern world. "By their fruits ye shall know 
them " is, after all, the most trustworthy of peda- 
gogical tests. We quote a part of the poem called 
" Sappho to Phaon": 

" Beloved, wait not for the sun to set, 
But come thou while his level glances fill 
The green world with a flood of mystic light ; 
And only Hesperus of all the stars, 
Dares hang a lamp within the golden glow. 
Slow wanes the day, slow slips the ebbing tide 
Upon the shingly reaches of the shore ; 
And all my heart is drawing thine to me. 
Nay, come at noontide, when the shimmering heat 
Wilts all the tender blossoms on their stems ; 
And under willows, in the grateful shade, 
Pan and his happy brood dream happily. 
High in the air the hawk hangs motionless ; 
The dragonfly above the placid pool 
Spreads filmy wings upon the quiet air. 
The bee sleeps in the bosom of the rose, 
But I await thy coining eagerly." 



1911.] 



THE DIAL, 



167 



The ideals of the sensuous and the austere are 
strikingly contrasted in "The Penitent": 

" Leofric, monk, bends him above his books. 
In the Scriptorium ; flushed his eager face, 
Gleaming his eye, the while his pen doth trace 
In clearest script the lines whereon he looks. 
With beating heart, upon the vellum there 
He copies from an ancient, musty tome 
A burning page vivid with pagan Rome 
Catullus, singing to his Lesbia fair. 

Vivamus, Lesbia mea, atqne amemns ! 
Da mi basia mille. deinde centum, 
Dein mille altera, dein secunda centum ! ' 

'* Leofric, monk, kneeleth in silent prayer 
Upon the cold stones of the chapel floor 
Before the altar ; mutely he doth adore 
The pallid Christ hanging before him there. 
Deep lie the shadows on his sunken cheek ; 
Heavy the sins upon his low-bowed head ; 
Worn are the beads whereon his prayers are said ; 
Trembling his lips with words his soul would speak. 
' Rex tremendae majestatis 

Qui salvandos salvas gratis, 

Sal va me, f ons pictatis ! ' " 

One more selection this time an exquisite per- 
sonal tribute shall be given. " Thou " is the 
simple title of the three stanzas : 

" Lord God would write an epic, and the world, 
New-moulded from the void, rolled into space, 
And with heaven's glittering myriads took its place. 
Sapphired with oceans and with sands empearled. 

" Lord God would write an elegy. Swift grew 
Great Babylon and Memphis, Athens, Rome ; 
Only to perish under dust and loam 
Of centuries, 'neath heaven's relentless blue. 

Then the Lord God, not wholly satisfied. 
Where the dawn glowed and trembled, dipped his pen 
And wrote a lyric. Ah ! and then and then 
Thou grave and tender, smiling, starry-eyed!" 

Mrs. Garrison's new volume, "The Earth Cry. 
and Other Poems," exhibits much refinement of 
thought and subtlety of emotional coloring, but 
does not reveal a very distinctive individuality. Its 
best things are apt to remind us of better things by 
other poets, as " The Annunciation " does : 

" God whispered and a silence fell ; the world 

Poised one expectant moment like a soul 
Who sees at Heaven's threshold the unfurled 
White wings of cherubim, the sea impearled, 

And pauses, dazed, to comprehend the whole ; 
Only across all space God's whisper came 
And burned about her heart like some white flame. 

" Then suddenly a bird's note thrilled the peace. 

And earth again jarred noisily to life, 
With a great murmur as of many seas. 
But Mary sat with hands clasped on her knees, 

And lifted eyes with all amazement rife, 
And in her heart the rapture of the Spring 
Upon its first sweet day of blossoming." 

Neat little magazine pieces of the better class, deal- 
ing with familiar themes and symbols, these poems 
charm for the moment, but hardly impress them- 
selves upon the memory. 



Something similar must be said of the u Lips of 
Music," by Miss Charlotte Porter, and " Earth's 
Artists " shall be taken to illustrate the judgment 

" A Painter Autumn is, whose brush 
Shows earth's hot heart in each cool rush, 
Each bush flames underfoot, each tree 
A tossing torch flares high and free, 
Eaph plant would all a flower be. 

" A Sculptor Winter is his hand 
With icy chisel carves the land ; 
He bares earth's pureness to the light, 
His keen strokes shape with rigor right 
The sudden goddess, hushed and white. 

' Earth listens : her Musician, Spring, 
Afar, and timid, thrills his string : 
The goddess melts, a girl descends ; 
Those stars her eyes, on his she bends, 
And deathless hope his luting lends. 

But when the girl a woman turns, 
Within her soul all music burns ; 
Her Poet, Summer, sings the word 
Her spirit had but inly heard, 
And life to know Life's joy is stirred." 

Miss Porter has studied in the best schools of taste, 
as her textual work in editing the master-poets 
makes sufficiently evident, and she is entitled to 
have her own fling. Her pieces are mostly lyrical, 
and we do not mean it as dispraise when we say 
that she seems to have mastered the rhetoric of the 
lyric rather than to have caught the secret of its 
magic. Many of her songs have, indeed, been 
written for a musical setting. 

" The Desert Queen," which means the giant 
cactus of the southwestern desert, suggests to Miss 
Sharlot M. Hall the following stanzas : 

" I was Zenobia in the olden time 

And ruled the desert from Palmyra's walls ; 
I flung my challenge to imperial Rome 

So far that still across the years it calls 
In proud defiance but my halls are dust ; 
The jackal suns him at the temple door ; 
The wind-blown sands hide street and corridor 
And heap the palace floor. 

" Forgotten is Aurelian and his might ; 

Above his grave the beggar children smile ; 
And I, who swayed the East in other days, 

Am mistress now of many a Western mile ; 
Crowned with a coronal of snowy flowers, 

And armed and guarded with a thousand spears, 
I dream while dim mirages recreate 

In shimmering light the splendor of past years. v 

This is as typical a short piece as we can find in 
Miss Hall's " Cactus and Pine," but it represents 
her inadequately, for her real quality is to be sought 
in the swinging rhythms of her long poems. In 
her work the Southwest finds a voice its legends, 
its romantic history, its natural beauty, and its free 
outdoor life. She has a large and vivid imagina- 
tion, which she nevertheless does not permit to lose 
itself in abstractions, and her blend of realism with 
song offers a refreshing contrast to the work of the 
magazine poets who spin their verse from their 
inner consciousness. 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYXE. 



168 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. 



An impressive record of a people s 

Progress of i . i T> t- 

the French achievement is given by Professor 

Republic. j . Bracq in ''France under the 

Republic " (Scribner). The book is the most per- 
tinent answer to the familiar question whether or 
not the Third Republic is stable, or is to share the 
fate of its short-lived predecessors ; for what chance 
have pretenders with a population which every year 
is finding new expressions of its industrial, intellect- 
ual, and moral energy ? Such a record accounts 
for the increasing weakness of the monarchist groups. 
The financial strength of France is always a surprise 
to the uninitiated who have listened to so many tales 
of returning travellers about the degeneracy of the 
French. Professor Bracq notes that the gold re- 
serve of the Bank of France has risen in thirty 
years from 604,000,000 francs to 3,052,000,000. 
A quiet but significant display of this financial 
power calmed the warlike inclinations of the Ger- 
mans at the time of the Morocco affair. Its source 
is industry, commerce, and thrift; and so with 
the increase of the gold reserve goes the fact that 
the clearing-house transactions in Paris have mul- 
tiplied thirteen fold. If these were all the signs of 
progress, one might infer that the bourgeoisie of the 
Republic had been acting on the advice which Louis 
Philippe is said to have given to the bourgeois of 
1830, "Enrich yourselves." Professor Bracq shows 
the other side in his chapters on " Education in the 
New Life," " Social Reform," and kindred topics. 
His enlightening chapter on " Religious Doubt- 
Religion" encourages the conclusion that although 
there is a large number of " intellectuals" who are 
entirely out of sympathy with the Church and with 
Christianity, the prospects of both Catholicism and 
Protestantism were never brighter. The separation 
of Church and State has simplified the situation. 
The last third of the volume is devoted to the religious 
crisis, including the controversy over the Church 
schools, the religious orders, and the Law of Separa- 
tion. Upon such matters exact and impartial state- 
ments are difficult to make. The author seems to 
be taking refuge in verbal distinctions when he says, 
apropos of the Revolution and Church property, 
" The charges about confiscation of property, as a 
whole, are untrue." An equally questionable state- 
ment denies any reference in the Concordat to the 
payment of salaries as a compensation for the loss 
of property. There is also a tendency apparent in 
the discussion to ignore the difference between the 
Concordat and the Organic Articles. But these are 
historical matters, and Professor Bracq's opinions 
upon them do not mar the otherwise fair tone of his 
treatment of his subject. 

The evolution Somewhat misleading as to title is 
of styles in the book called " How to Know 

architecture. Architecture" (Harper), by Mr. 
Frank E. Wallis, A. A. I. A.; although a sub-title, 
" The Human Elements in the Evolution of Styles," 



describes its contents more accurately. The pub- 
lishers' advertisement asserts that " after you have 
read this book you can, on looking at a building, 
say to what style and what period it belongs"; and 
the author himself says toward the close, " A little 
further study will differentiate for you the English 
revival, and the Italian revival, the Philadelphian 
Georgian and the Georgian of Boston or of Annap- 
olis." But we cannot grant that either of these 
assertions is justified. Beginners (to whom the 
book is evidently addressed) have not sufficient data 
for such differentiations, nor has the author pro- 
vided them. He is not exact enough ; his definitions 
are too few, and those he gives are not always ac- 
curate entasis, for instance, is defined as the 
tapering of a Greek column. By its failure to 
offer sufficient and accurate technical explanation, 
it falls far below such a book as Stratham's "Archi- 
tecture for General Readers," in which the psychol- 
ogy of architecture is interwoven with a working 
knowledge of construction and general details. But 
as a study of the Evolution of Styles it is readable 
and suggestive. The underlying principle (or the 
"axiom," as it is called by the author) is this: 
" Architectural style development follows trade 
under the inspiration of political and religious 
conflict and progress, and to know architecture is 
to know the fundamental human or national ideal- 
ism." This development is traced through four 
principal periods : Pagan, Christian, Intellectual. 
Modern, the latter including the " industrial 
feudalism " of America to-day. Architecture is 
provided with a new and unique opening in the 
" interesting partnership between the industrial 
overlord and his retainers. The overlord requires 
libraries, institutions of learning, banks, and palaces, 
and we have them. On the other hand, we have a 
domestic architecture of the highest degree of ex- 
cellence, a new expression which is not only com- 
fortable and fit but beautiful and supremely con- 
vincing." The author has brought together a large 
amount of material, and has treated it in a suggestive 
though not always entirely relevant way. There are 
one hundred and seventeen illustrations ; the page 
decorations for the subject-divisions and the initials 
for the chapter-beginnings, both designed by the 
author, are appropriate as well as beautiful. 

Mr. R. L. Gales, a keen-eyed observer 
Rural essays J 

and other with a good memory and a lively sense 

disquisitions. O f humor, has been among the north- 
of-England folk taking notes, which he prints under 
the title, "Studies in Arcady, and Other Essays 
from a Country Parsonage" (Herbert & Daniel, 
London). The writer's cloth excites expectation of 
grace and learning in his wit and humor ; nor is 
expectation disappointed. The mellowness of ma- 
ture years, also, and the charity that comes with a 
considerable knowledge of the world, speak in his 
pages. An American reader cannot but marvel at 
the stunted intelligence and narrow outlook of the 
average rural dweller in England, as depicted in 



1911.] 



THE 



169 



Mr. Gales's pages. In the matter of figures, five 
hundred would seem to be the highest number even 
dimly conceivable by his simple-minded parishioners, 
and their notions of geography are so ludicrously 
vague that we have one person referring to Rome 
as "in Paris," and another speaking of Manchester 
as in the south of England. Pathetic, too, as well 
as amusing is their eager but unintelligent interest 
in the lives of "the quality." This hunger for a 
more abounding life they seek to feed with such 
sensational reports from the great world as are sup- 
plied by the Sunday newspapers, for which the au- 
thor has an unexpected good word to say. " After 
all," he feels compelled to admit, "they are the 
Greek tragedies, the Strauss operas, of the poor. 
Here for them is the ' pity and terror,' the sense of 
destiny and awfulness, which an intellectual elite 
finds in antique choruses. Some of the Greek plays 
are almost insupportably dreadful, the mythological 
stories are in themselves, as a matter of fact, often 
repulsive and grotesque, but there is always a re- 
deeming sense of largeness, and this the poor find 
amid the horrors of the Sunday newspaper." It may 
well be that these plodding rustics are mentally too 
heavy and dull to be either much hurt or much 
helped by anything they might read. In addition 
to these Arcadian studies from real life, the book 
contains a number of chapters on " Folk-Lore and 
Tradition," and on " Speech and Language," while a 
final half-dozen are grouped together as " Discussions 
and Digressions." Of books as well as human nature 
the author shows himself to be a diligent student. 

Through the ^ r ' Henry James Forman's "In the 
Harz in Heine's Footprints of Heine" (Houghton) 
footprint*. fa an ingratiating, if slight, perform- 

ance, deriving native charm from being written on 
the spot by one who has absorbed some of the real 
spirit of the Harzreise. With the convenient help 
of the railway, which was not available to his pre- 
decessor, and omitting (unfortunately) the ascent 
of the Ilsenstein, the author repeated most of the 
memorable foot-tour of 1824. Although not notable 
in style, the book gives back the free and generous 
joy of the open road : " I drank in the balmy pine- 
laden air : it was a kind of spiritual second wind " 
and the breezy book itself may well serve a similar 
tonic purpose to overwrought and distracted readers. 
The author is susceptible in various directions, and 
falls in with more liberal spoils in the way of living 
folk-lore and delicately-attuned German ladies than 
most pedestrians in those parts are like to en- 
counter. So generous is he in sharing these prizes, 
that they have a suggestion of premeditated and not 
altogether pertinent embellishment. The pungent 
Harz-atmosphere scarcely needs this conscious spic- 
ing. The legend of the partridges (p. 78) reads 
like a retelling of Die Kraniche des Ibykus, a 
myth-making popular redaction of Schiller's poetry 
for which there are convincing parallels. The spell- 
ing wavers between English and German usage, 
with occasional forms that belong nowhere. "A 



man bearing the pastoral name of Blumenbach " 
is a tame designation for the immortal founder of 
the science of anthropology, and is no sort of a pre- 
paration at all for the crushing shock caused by the 
startling apparition of Walther von der Vogelweide 
" emerging from a gabled house humming a tune of 
the Meistersinger." The full-page illustrations by 
Mr. Walter King Stone are most satisfactory impres- 
sions of the region, and reflect not a little of its per- 
ennial charm. _ 
" The American The new edition just published of 

Commonwealth" -., -u , A /-, 

twentv-two ^ T " Bryce 8 "American (Common- 

year* after. wealth " (Macmillan) is the third 
re-issue of this memorable work since its first ap- 
pearance in 1888, and is so considerably revised 
and enlarged as to constitute almost a new work, 
though the ground-plan remains much the same and 
certain chapters have called for but little modifica- 
tion. In the two hundred additional pages of the 
present edition are contained four new chapters of 
importance, one on our transmarine possessions, 
another on the vast influx of immigrants from cen- 
tral and southern Europe, still another on the more 
recent aspects of the negro question in the South, 
and, finally, a consideration of the notable develop- 
ment in late years of American universities. In 
the subsidiary matter prefixed and appended there 
are some omissions and some additions. The con- 
stitution of California has been reduced to a one- 
page extract, and the constitution of Oklahoma has 
been added, to the extent of twenty-three pages of 
fine print. The handy table of " Area, Population, 
and Dates of Admission of the States" has been 
omitted, as has also " The Federal System of En- 
glish Universities," doubtless to avoid swelling the 
volumes to unmanageable size. The author's hopes 
for our future have by no means given place to 
despair since he first essayed, with optimistic pen, 
to portray our public institutions and our social life. 
" It was with some anxiety," he confesses, " that I 
entered on this revision, fearing lest the hopeful 
spirit with which my observations of American 
institutions from 1870 to 1894 had inspired me 
might be damped by a close examination of their 
more recent phases. But all I have seen and heard 
during the last few years makes me more hopeful 
for the future of popular government. The forces 
working for good seem stronger to-day than they 
have been for the last three generations." This 
work from the hand of a foreigner becomes, in its 
enlarged form, more emphatically than ever the 
most noteworthy treatise on our political and social 
system. _ 



A -ott the f " An English- 

itieofErin man in Ireland: Impressions of a 
in a canoe. Journey in a Canoe by River, Lough, 

and Canal" (Dutton), by Mr. R. A. Scott- James, 
strikes the note of this opening season as follows : 
" There comes a time early in the spring when the 
decrepitude of years or the precocity of youth is 
wont to fall from you. On that real first day of 



170 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



the year you suffer reincarnation, and feel that your 
opportunity in life, as the lay preachers express it, 
hegins again: that you have another chance to he 
the superman, your dislike for whom has always 
been tempered by a reserve of envy." Yielding to 
the vernal impulse, the author, with a congenial 
companion, secured a canoe, studied well the map 
of Ireland and the course of the river Shannon, 
with its connecting water-ways, and then proceeded 
to tour the island, from Belfast on the northeast to 
Limerick on the southwest, in the manner indicated 
in the title. Descriptions and reflections and bits 
of dialogue diversify the chronicle of this leisurely 
journey. Of the typical Irishman the writer ob- 
serves : " Perfectly he fulfils the maxim ' Take not 
thought for the morrow '; and because he does not 
take thought he is poor, but in his poverty he is 
provided with more that the heart needs, with more 
that makes for happiness, than we with all our prac- 
tical but inhuman industrialism can achieve." A 
map and illustrations from photographs help the 
reader to a more vivid participation in this pleasant 
Irish jaunt. . 

Municipal ^ . Mr / Delos . F ' Wilcox's Great 

administration Cities in America " (Macmillan) we 
in America. have a very instructive and readable 
account of certain aspects of municipal administra- 
tion in six of our largest urban communities. The 
author has already rendered valuable service in pre- 
vious discussions, and this study goes more deeply 
into the essence of the struggle between the repre- 
sentatives of individual interest and public welfare. 
The criticism of abuses is not cynical but distinctly 
patriotic, the message of those who believe the 
American people need only the light of truth to call 
forth earnest effort and sane action. No citizen can 
read this work without setting his teeth for a new 
attack on mercenary control of the colossal ma- 
chinery of city government. The facts are brought 
up to date, and the reader can connect the daily news 
with the story of the development of the institutions 
which thus far represent the sorriest defects of uni- 
versal suffrage. 



NOTES. 



Sir A. Conan Doyle is about to publish with Messrs. 
Smith, Elder & Co. of London, a volume of poems, 
entitled " Songs of the Road." 

New novels by Messrs. John Galsworthy, Maurice 
Hewlett, Frank H. Spearman, A. T. Quiller-Couch, and 
E. W. Hornung are promised for Spring issue by 
Messrs. Scribner's Sons. 

The Autobiography of Richard Wagner, to the 
forthcoming publication of which extended mention was 
made in our last issue, will be issued in this country by 
Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co. 

An enlarged and revised edition of Mr. William 
Winter's charming sketches of travel in England, " Gray 
Days and Gold," is promised for Spring publication by 
Messrs. Moffat, Yard & Co. 



An English translation of Gustav Frenssen's novel, 
" Klaus Hinrich Baas," will be issued within a few 
weeks by the Macmillan Co. It is a tale of strenuous 
commercial life in Germany of to-day. 

The United States Minister to Denmark, Mr. Maurice 
F. Egan, is preparing a series of lectures on " Hymnody," 
which will be delivered at the John Hopkins University 
this year, and subsequently published in book form. 

Mr. Eden Phillpotts's forthcoming novel, " Demeter's 
Daughter " depicts the war of different natures, and the 
single-handed struggle of a strong and noble woman to 
lift and reclaim her family. The scene is again Dart- 
moor. 

" The Obvious Orient," by Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart 
of Harvard, is announced by the Appletons for issue 
next month. Dr. Hart travelled around the world with 
his family a year or two ago, taking the Pacific Coast 
and Alaska on the way. 

Mr. George B. Utley, librarian of the Public Library 
of Jacksonville, Fla., has been chosen as the new 
secretary of the American Library Association, with 
headquarters at Chicago. Mr. Utley's resignation as 
librarian at Jacksonville took effect last week. 

The forthcoming definitive edition of Stevenson's 
letters, upon which Mr. Sidney Colvin has been at work 
for some time past, will be issued in this country by 
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons. The edition will com- 
prise four volumes, and will include about one hundred 
and fifty new letters. 

"The Agonists: A Trilogy of God and Man," by 
Mr. Maurice Hewlett, will be published in the early 
Summer. In presenting the stories of Minos, King of 
Crete, Ariadne in Naxos, and the Death of Hippolytus, 
the author seeks to express "the fallacy in the ancient 
conceptions of God-kind and mankind, and in the 
ancient views of their relationships." 

Three volumes of considerable literary interest soon 
to be issued by Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co. are the 
following : " Men, Women, and Books " by Miss 
Betham-Ed wards; " Friederick Nietzsche : The Diony- 
sian Spirit of the Age," by Mr. A. R. Orage; and a 
second series of " The Humbler Poets," an anthology of 
newspaper verse, edited by Wallace and Frances Rice. 

" The Washington Square Classics," a series of stand- 
ard books for young people, is soon to be launched by 
Messrs. George W. Jacobs & Co. Each volume will 
be set in large type, and will contain eight or more 
full-page colored illustrations. The first titles to be 
published will be Stevenson's " Treasure Island," 
Hawthorne's " Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales," 
and Miss Sewell's " Black Beauty." 

Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, known to all American 
readers through her graceful writings on colonial and 
gardening subjects, died at her son's home in Hemp- 
stead, Long Island, February 16. She was born in 
Worcester, Mass., in 1853. Among her best-known 
books are the following: " Sundials and Roses of Yes- 
terday," "The Sabbath in Puritan New England," 
" China Collecting in America," "Customs and Fashions 
in Old New England," " Life of Margaret Winthrop," 
" Diary of a Boston Schoolgirl," " Historic New York," 
" Old-Time Gardens," and " Two Centuries of Costume 
in America." Mrs. Earle was for several years a 
frequent and valued contributor to THE DIAL, but 
persistent illness during the last years of her life made 
this and all other literary work impossible. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



171 



TOPICS IK LEADING PERIODICALS. 

March. 1911. 



Alma-Tadema's Hall of Panels. Rudolph de Cordova. Scribner. 
American. The Provincial. Meredith Nicholson. Atlantic. 
Anti-Clericalism in France. Kenneth Bell. Forum. 
Architectural League of New York. H. W. Frohne. Int. Studio. 
Argentina, Progressive. James Davenport Whelpley. Century. 
Boys and the Theatre. Frederick Winsor. Atlantic. 
Campaign Management. Emily Newell Blair. Outlook. 
Capital in America. John Moody and George Turner. McClure. 
Carcassonne. George Allan England. Century. 
Census. The Thirteenth. Katherine Cavanagb. Bookman. 
China. Christianity in. Edward A. Ross. Century. 
Class-Consciousness. Vida D. Scndder. Atlantic. 
Crawford, Earl Stetson. A. Lenalie. International Studio. 
Crime, Outdoor Treatment of. H. R. Cooley. Outlook. 
Decoration. A New Motive in. Harrison 8. Morris. Century. 
Etchers, The Chicago Society of. Maude Oliver. Int. Studio. 
Express Monopoly, The Great. Albert W. Atwood. A merican. 
Faith. Scientific. John Burroughs. Outlook. 
Fashion. The Glass of. Edward Fuller. Bookman. 
German Book Arts, The. William Allen. Bookman. 
Get-Rich-Quick Game. The. C. M. Keys. World'* Work. 
Gifted, The Should They Marry? Minna T. Antrim. Lippincott. 
Gilder, Richard Watson. Maria Lansdale. Century. 
Harrison, Mrs. Burton, Recollections of I. Scribner. 
Himalayas, A Quest in the. Mary B. Beebe. Harper. 
Human Conservation. Experiments in. R. W. Bruere. Harper. 
India, Religion and Caste in. Price Collier. Scribner. 
Japanese Basket Work. Oliver Wheatley. International Studio. 
Labor Union. The Case against. Washington Gladden. Outlook. 
La Farge An Appreciation. F. J. Mather. Jr. World'* Work. 
Letters and their Writers, Some. Ellen Terry. McClure. 
Liberty, A Definition of. Isaac L. Rice. Forum. 
Lincoln, Abraham, Recollections of. Hamilton Busbey. Forum. 
Living, Regulating the Cost of. H. J. Howland. Outlook. 
Lowell, John. The Legacy of. H. Addington Bruce. Outlook. 
Luther, Martin, and his Work. Arthur C. McGiffert. Century. 
McAdoo and the Subway. Burton J. Hendrick. McClure. 
Miniature Painters, Society of. Alice Searle. Int. Studio. 
Nationalism and the Judiciary. Theodore Roosevelt. Outlook. 
New York's New Library. David Gray. Harper. 
Ocean's Floor, Exploring the. Sir John Murray. Harper. 
Parrots, In Praise of. Franklin James. Atlantic. 
Peat-Bog, The Story of the. Jacob A. Riis. Outlook. 
Pension Carnival, The VI. William B. Hale. World 1 * Work. 
Photography Exhibition, National. W. D. MacColl. Int. Studio. 
Portuguese of Provincetown, The. Mary Heaton Vorse. Outlook. 
Property tax. Effect of the. Albert Jay Nock. American. 
Prudery. The Price of. Caleb Williams Saleeby. Forum. 
Recreation through the Senses. P. W. Goldsbury. Atlantic. 
Rich, A Word to the. Henry L. Higginson. Atlantic. 
Riley. James Whitcomb. Hewitt H. Howland. Bookman. 
Scenic Novel, The. Ellis Parker Butler. Atlantic. 
Scientific Management, Principles of. F. W. Taylor. American. 
Shaw, Bernard : The Realizer of Ideals. Temple Scott. Forum. 
Sierra. My First Summer in the. John Muir. Atlantic. 
Slave Plantation, The, in Retrospect. W. M. Daniels. Atlantic. 
Slums, Down to the. Henry Oyen. World 1 * Work. 
Steel Workers, The Strain on the. John A. Fitch. American. 
Taylor, Frederick W. Ray Stannard Baker. A merican. 
Translations of Classics, Famous. Calvin Winter. Bookman. 
Trees, Living, A Museum of. F. L. Bullard. World'* Work. 
Trusts, German Good-Will toward. Elmer Roberts. Scribner. 
Two-Party Politics, A Criticism of. J. N. Lamed. Atlantic. 
United States Army. The II. H. L. Clotworthy. World 1 * Work. 
Virginia in Fiction. Louise Collier Willcox. Bookman. 
Wagner Memoirs, The Real. Albert Banselow. Bookman. 
Washington in a Revolutionary Crisis. W. C. Ford. Century. 
Washington's Sense of Humor, Wayne Whipple. Century. 
World Peace, The Dawn of. Hamilton Holt. JTor/d' Work. 
Znni, The Little World of. Charles F. Saunders. Outlook. 



IJST OF XEW BOOKS. 



[The following list, containing 84 titles, includes books 
received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] 

BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. 
The Growth of Napoleon: A Study in Environment. By 
Norwood Young. Illustrated, large 8vo, 468 pages. Dnffield 
& Co. $3.75 net. 



Lady John Russell: A Memoir. Edited by Desmond Mac- 
Carthy and Agatha Russell. Illustrated in color, etc., large 
8vo, 325 pages. John Lane Co. $3.50 net. 

The Lighter Side of My Official Life. By Sir Robert 
Anderson. With photogravure frontispiece, 8vo, 295 pages. 
George H. Doran Co. 

David Rlcardo : A Centenary Estimate. By Jacob H. Hol- 
lander. 8vo, 137 pages. " Johns Hopkins University Studies 
in Historical and Political Science." Baltimore: Johns 
Hopkine Press. Paper. 

GENERAL LITERATURE. 

French Men, Women, and Books: A Series of Nine 
teenth-Century Studies. By Miss Betham-Ed wards. Illus- 
trated, large 8 vo, 250 pages. A. C. McClnrg & Co. $2 .50 net. 

Meredith's Allegory: The Shaving: of Shag-pat. Inter- 
preted by James McKechnie. 12mo, 246 pages. George H. 
Doran Co. 

Edgrehill Essays. By Adrian Hoffman Joline. Large Svo, 
226 pages. Richard G. Badger. $2. net. 

Repetition and Parallelism in Tennyson. By Emile 
Lauvriere. 16mo, 107 pages. Oxford University Press. Paper. 

NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD LITERATURE. 

The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte. Edited by Clement 
Shorter ; with introduction by W. Robertson Nicoll. Large 
Svo, 331 pages. George H. Doran Co. 

The Works of George Meredith. Memorial Edition. Vol- 
umes XXIII., XXIV.. and XXV.: Poems. Illustrated in 
photogravure, etc., Svo. Charles Scribner's Sons. (Sold 
only in sets by subscription.) 

Two on a Tower. By Thomas Hardy. New thin-paper edi- 
tion; with photogravure frontispiece, 16mo, 333 pages. 
Harper & Brothers. Cloth. $1 .25 ; leather, $1 .25 net. 

Everyman's Library. New volumes : Crime and Punishment, 
by Fedor Dostoieffsky, with introduction by Laurence 
Irving; The Pilgrim Fathers. Each 16mo. E. P. Dutton & 
Co. Per volume, 35 cts. net. 

BOOKS OF VERSE. 

Dream and Drama. By Robinson Smith. I6mo, 25 pages. 

Hartford, Conn.: G. F. Warfield & Co. 
The Rnbaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Translated from the 

original Persian by Isaac Dooman. 16mo, 77 pages. 

Richard G. Badger. $1. net. 

FICTION. 

The Chasm. By George Cram Cook. 12mo, 379 pages. Fred- 
erick A. Stokes Co. $1.25 net. 
The Canon In Residence. By Victor L. Whitechurch. 12mo. 

247 pages. Baker & Taylor Co. $1.20 net. 
A Woman with a Purpose. By Anna Chapin Ray. With 

frontispiece in color, 12mo. 338 pages. Little, Brown, & Co. 

$1.25 net. 
The Married Miss Worth. By Louise Closser Hale. I2mo. 

279 pages. John Lane Co. $1.20 net. 
How Leslie Loved. By Anne Warner. Illustrated in color. 

12mo. 292 pages. Little, Brown, & Co. $1.25 net. 
Princess Katherine. By Katherine Tynan. I2mo. 331 pages. 

Dnffield & Co. $1.20 net. 

Alise of Astra, By H. B. Marriott Watson. With frontis- 
piece. 12mo, 312 pages. Little, Brown, A Co. $1.50. 
The Prodigal Judge. By Vaughan Kester. Illustrated, Svo, 

448 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1.50. 
The Vow. By Paul Trent. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 

341 pages. Frederick A. Stokes Co. $1.25 net. 
The Young Idea : A Comedy of Environment. By Frank A. 

Swinnerton. 12mo, 308 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.10 net. 
The Man With the Scar. By Warren and Alice Fones. With 

frontispiece, 12 mo. 244 pages. Richard G. Badger. $1.50. 
The Makings of a Girl. By Emma E. Meguire. 12mo. 190 

pages. Richard G. Badger. $1. net. 

RELIGION AND THEOLOGY. 
Essays in Modern Theology and Related Subjects. By 

Charles Augustus Briggs. Large Svo, 347 pages. Charles 

Scribner's Sons. $2.50 net. 
The Christ Myth. By Arthur Drews ; translated by C. Delisle 

Burns. Third edition, revised and enlarged ; Svo. 303 pages. 

Open Court Publishing Co. $2.25 net. 
The Country Church and the Rural Problem: The 

Carew Lectures at Hartford Theological Seminary, 1909. 

By Kenyon L. Butterfield. 12mo, 153 pages. University of 

Chicago Press. $1. net. 



172 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



Modern Thought and Traditional Faith. By George 
Preston Mains. 8vo, 279 pages. Eaton & Mains. $1.50 net. 

Thoughts on Ultimate Problems : A Series of Short 
Studies on Theological and Metaphysical Subjects. By 
W. Frankland. Fourth and enlarged edition; 16mo, 101 
pages. London : David Nutt. Paper. 

Commentary on the Bible according: to Matthew. By 
A. T. Robertson. I6mo, 294 pages. " The Bible for Home 
and School." Macmillan Co. 60 cts. net. 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 
Land Problems and National Welfare. By Christopher 

Turner; with introduction by the Bight Hon. Viscount 

Milner. Large 8vo, 343 pages. John Lane Co. $2.50 net. 
War or Peace : A Present Day Duty and a Future Hope. By 

Hiram M. Chittenden. 12mo, 273 pages. A. C. McClurg& 

Co. $1. net. 
The Kan-Made World of Our Androcentric Culture. By 

Charlotte Perkins Oilman. 12mo, 260 pages. Charlton Co. 

$1. net. 

NATURE AND OUT-DOOR LIFE. 
The Adventures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer 

and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California. By Theodore H. 

Hittell. New edition ; illustrated, 12mo, 373 pages. Charles 

Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. 
The Fine Art of Fishing. By Samuel G. Camp. Illustrated, 

16mo, 177 pages. Outing Publishing Co. $1. net. 
The Life of a Foxhound. By John Mills. Illustrated in 

color, etc., 8vo, George H. Doran Co. 
Cone-Bearing: Trees of the California Mountains. By 

J. Smeaton Chase. Illustrated, 16mo, 95 pages. A. C. 

McClurg & Co. 75 cts. net. 

BOOKS FOB THE YOUNG. 

A Guide to English History for Young Readers. By Henry 

William Elson. Illustrated, 12mo, 298 pages. " The Guide 

Series." Baker & Taylor Co. $1.25 net. 
I Wonder: Essays for the Young People. By the writer of 

" Confessio Medici." 8vo, 109 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. 
Truths : Talks with a Boy concerning Himself. By E. B. 

Lowry. 16mo, 95 pages. Chicago : Forbes & Co. 50 cts. net. 
Entertainments for All the Year. By Clara J. Denton. 

iGmo, 220 pages. Penn Publishing Co. Paper 80 cts. net. 

EDUCATION. 

A Cyclopedia of Education. Edited by Paul Monroe. Vol- 
ume I., 654 pages. Macmillan Co. $5. net. 

The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists, including Shakespeare : 
Selected Plays. Edited by William Allan Neilson. With 
frontispiece, 8vo, 878 pages. " Chief Poets Series." Hough- 
ton Mifflin Co. $2.75 net. 

Fundamentals in Education, Art, and Civics : Essays and 
Addresses. By George Lansing Raymond. 12mo, 350 pages. 
Funk & Wagnalls Co. $1.40 net. 

Elements of Zoology to Accompany the Field and Laboratory 
Study of Animals. By Charles Benedict Davenport. Illus- 
trated in color, etc., 12mo, 503 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. 

The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art. By 
Charles Mills Gayley. Illustrated, 8vo, 597 pages. Ginn & 
Co. $1.60 net. 

The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School. By 
Garland Armor Bricker; with introduction by Dr. W. C. 
Bagley. 12mo, 202 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net. 

A Latin Grammar. By Harry Edwin Burton. 12mo, 337 pages- 
Silver, Burdett & Co. 90 cts. net. 

Sudermann's Fran Sorge. Edited by Eugene Leser and 
Carl Osthaus. With portrait, 16mo. 252 pages. D. C. 
Heath & Co. 

Oxford German Texts. New volumes: Agnes Bernauer, by 
Friedrich Hebbel ; Iwav der Schreckliche, by Hans Hoff- 
mann. 16mo. Oxford University Press. Per vol. ,60 cts. net. 

Cooper's the Deerslayer. Edited by M. F. Lansing. Illus- 
trated, 16mo, 378 pages. Ginn & Co. 65 cts. net. 

Holt's German Texts. New volumes: Meissner's Das 
Marchen von Heute ; Loening-Arndt's Deutsche Wirtschaf t . 
16mo. Henry Holt & Co. 

Las Mejores Poesias Liricas de La Lengua Castellana. By 
Don Elfas C. Hills and Don Silvano G. Morley. 12mo, 
224 pages. Henry Holt & Co. 

The Quest of the Four-Leafed Clover: A Story of Arabia. 
By Walter Taylor Field. 16mo, 209 pages. Ginn & Co. 
40 cts. net. 

Deutsche Gedichte. By Camillo von Klenze. With frontis- 
piece. 16mo, 332 pages. Henry Holt & Co. 



The Half Dollar Music Series. New volumes: Favorite 
Songs; Favorite Duets for 'Cello and Piano. Each 8vo. 
Oliver Ditson Co. Per volume, 50 cts. 

Standard English Classics. New volumes: Macaulay's 
Essays on Clive and Hastings ; Lodge's Rosalynde ; Shake- 
speare's Midsummer-Night's Dream; Parkman's Oregon 
Trail; Dickens's David Copperfleld. Each 16mo. Ginn & 
Co. Per volume, 35 cts. net. 

Physical Training in and out of School. By William Torrey 
Harris. 16mo, 35 pages. Syracuse, N. Y. : C. W. Bardeen. 
Paper. 

La Jeune Siberienne. By Xavier de Maistre ; edited by C. 
Fontaine. 16mo, 121 pages. D. C. Heath & Co. 30 cts. net. 

Practical Guide to German Pronunciation.. By Edward 
Albert Grossmann. 16mo, 49 pages. New York : J. J. Little 
& Ives Co. 

Italian Grammar. By Nazareno Orlandi. 8vo, 371 pages. 
Siena: Tip. Sociale. 

Heat. By J. Gordon Ogden. Illustrated, 16mo, 119 pages. 
Chicago : Popular Mechanics Co. 

Merrill's English Texts. New volumes : Macbeth ; As You 
Like It. Each with portrait, 16mo. Charles E. Merrill Co. 
Per volume, 25 cts. net. 

BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 

The American Year Book: A Record of Events and Progress, 
1910. Edited by S. N. D. North. 12mo. 867 pages. D. 
Appleton & Co. $3.50 net. 

Who's Who, 1911: An Annual Biographical Dictionary. 
Sixty-third issue ; 12mo, 2245 pages. Macmillan Co. $2.50net. 

Index Verborum Vergilianus. By Monroe Nichols Wet- 
more. Large 8vo, 553 pages. Yale University Press. $4. net. 

A Synchronio Chart of United States History. By George 
E. Croscup and Ernest D. Lewis. Illustrated, large 8vo, 94 
pages. New York : Windsor Publishing Co. $1.50 net. 

Kindergarten at Home: A Kindergarten Course for the 
Individual Child at Home, By V. M. Hillyer. 8vo, 152 
pages. Baker & Taylor Co. $1.25 net. 

Dictionary of Hard Words. By Robert Morris Pierce. 
12mo, 297 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.20 net. 

A Guide to Beading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects : 
Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the 
Use of General Readers. By teachers in Harvard University. 
8vOi 295 pages. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University. 

Report of the Librarian of Congress, and Report of the 
Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds, for 
the Year 1910. Illustrated, large 8vo, 299 pages. Washing- 
ton : Government Printing Office. 

Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 
ended June 30, 1910. Volume I. Large 8vo, 662 pages. 
Washington : Government Printing Office. 

A Compact Bhyming Dictionary. By F. R. Bennett. 32mo, 
221 pages. "Miniature Reference Library." E. P. Dutton 
and Co. 50 cts. 

Garden and Farm Almanac for 1911. Edited by Claude H. 
Miller. Illustrated, 8vo, 222 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. 
Paper, 25 cts. net. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Essays on the Purpose of Art : Past and Present Creeds of 
English Painters. By Mrs. Russell Barrington. Large 8vo, 
421 pages. Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.25 net. 

The Face of Manchuria, Korea, and Bussian Turkestan. 
By E. G. Kemp. Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo, 248 
pages. Duffield & Co. $2.50 net. 

The Commonsense Collector : A Handbook of Hints on the 
Collecting and the Housing of Antique Furniture. By 
Frank Frankfort Moore. Illustrated in color, etc., 8vo, 220 
pages. George H. Doran Co. 

The Enchanted Parrot: A Selection from the "Suka. 
Saptati." Translated from the Sanskrit text by Rev. B. 
Hale Wortham. 16mo, 127 pages. London : Luzac & Co. 

Index Catalogue of the Woodside District Library, Glasgow. 
Second edition; 12mo, 680 pages. Glasgow, Scotland: 
Robert Maclehose & Co. 

Jokes That We Meet : Humorous Illustrations for the 
Writer, Talker, and Speaker. Edited by Edwin Du Bois 
Shurter. 16mo. 206 pages. Austin, Texas: South- West 
Publishing Co. 

Business Letters. By Calvin O. Althouse. 16mo, 208 pages. 
Penn Publishing Co. 50 cts. net. 

Script and Print: A Practical Primer for Use in the Prepara- 
tion of Manuscript and Print. By Philip L. Jones. 16mo, 
54 pages. Griffith & Rowland Press. 25 cts. net. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



173 



F. M. HOLLY 

Authors' and Publishers' Representative 
Circulars sent upon request. 15C Fifth Avenue, NEW YOBK. 

THE NEW YORK BUREAU OF REVISION 

Established in 1880. LETTERS OF CRITICISM. EXPER7 
REVISION OF MSS. Advice as to publication. AddreM 
DR. TITUS M. COAN. 70 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY 

ROfikTQ ALL OUT- OP- PRINT BOOKS SUPPLIED, 

UV/VJIV.J. no matter on what subject. Write us. We can eec 
you any book ever published. Please state wants. Catalogue free. 
BAKER'S GREAT BOOK SHOP, 14-16 Bright St., BnuenraHAM, Ess. 



LUZAC & CO. 

46 GREAT RUSSELL STREET : : LONDON. W.C 

MAKE A SPECIALTY OF 

ORIENTAL LITERATURE, RELIGION, ETC. 

Catalogues issued periodically of new and second-hand books 
which are sent gratis on application! 



OUT OF PRINT and SCARCE BOOKS 

Searched for. Send list of BOOK WANTS. Catalogue Free. 

SCHULTE'S BOOKSTORE 

132 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK CITY. N. Y. 

Libraries, Collections of Books, 

and Autograph Letters Purchased 



LEXINGTON BOOK SHOP 

120 East 59th Street, New York City 

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS BOUGHT FOR GASH 

HAVE you any old letters, manuscripts, or documents of the 
Presidents of the United States, Signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. Revolutionary Generals.or Celebrated Authors, 
Poets, or Statesmen, English or American ? I will pay yon CASH 
for them. Write me at once or send letters to me for inspection. A 
safe and immediate return guaranteed if my offer is not accepted. 

P. F. MADIGAN. 1 Eat 45th Street, NEW YORK 



Etched Portraits 

By JACQUES REICH 
FAMOUS AMERICANS 



WASHINGTON 

JEFFERSON 

HAMILTON 

FRANKLIN 

WEBSTER 

JACKSON 



MADISON 
PAUL JONES 
JOHN MARSHALL 
LINCOLN 
GEORGE WILLIAM 

CURTIS 
Plates 14x18 inches. 



GRANT 

CLEVELAND 

McKINLEY 

ROOSEVELT 

TAFT 

CARNEGIE 



SERIES OF AUTHORS 

TENNYSON HOLMES THACKERAY 

BRYANT WHITTIER MEREDITH 

LOWELL MRS. STOWE DICKENS 

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 

Plate 13X1 i8K. 

Arrangements for private plates may be made by mail. 
Send for descriptive Price List. 

W. 40th Street 
V YORK CITY 



JACQUES REICH 



THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

Wholesale Dealers in the Books of all Publishers 
33-37 EAST 17th Street, NEW YORK 

^LIBRARY ORDERS 
FILLED PROMPTLY 



We have hundreds of satisfied customers in all parts of 
the United States. In addition to our large stock of 
the books of all publishers, we have unexcelled facil- 
ities for securing promptly books not in stock and 
making shipments complete. Our import department 
is thoroughly equipped. Save delay by ordering from 
New York City the publishing center of the country. 



FOR BOOKS hard to find, and for 
ANY BOOKS, recent or old 



WRITE TO 



E. W. Johnson, Dealer in New and Old Books 

121 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 



Sent/ for New Catalogue 
of Good Book* 



GOOD BOOKS 

Purchased 



invi I C AC PDCCPC HOWARD SUTHERLAND 
ILJILLj Ur uKLLLL $1.00. By Mail $1.09 

Second Series AN EXQUISITE GIFT BOOK 

DESMOND FITZGERALD. 156 5th Ave.. New York 

"/ am a singer of joy to the earth." 

OPTIMOS A Volume of Poems 

By HORACE TRAUBEL 

At bookstores, $1JO net ; postpaid, $1.60. 
B. W. HUEBSCH, PUBLISHER, NEW YORK 



AUTHORS 

wishing manuscripts placed without reading fee, address 

La TOO CHE HANCOCK, 134 W, 37th St., New York City 



PITRI IQUFR<t WANTED AN EXPERIENCED MAN 

F UDLilOntilXO as manager for a rising New York Book 
and Magazine concern of good class. Salary to start with. 
$4,000. Apply, stating age and experience to 

PORTER STEELE. 32 Liberty Street. New York City. 

Business Opportunity 

PARTNER WANTED WITH $40,000 CAPITAL 

to buy half interest in well established book business in the 
financial district of New York City. Address " L," care DIAL. 

THE STUDY-GUIDE SERIES 

FOR COLLEGE CLASSES AXD STUDY-CLUBS 

Studies of Historical Flays of Shakespeare. Single copy, 

one play. 4O cents. Special price for use in classes. 
Studies of Historical Novels. Romola, Henry Esmond. For 

advanced classes, clubs, etc. 
The Creative Art of Fiction. An essay for advanced students. 

writers of short stories, etc. 
The Study of Idylls of the King 1 . Advanced and critical 

study of poetic narrative art, of figure* of speech, idyllic form, etc. 

Lift for secondary schoolt on request. Address 
H. A. Davidson, The Study-Guide Series. Cambridge, MOM. 



174 



THE DIAL 



[March 1, 



THE DRAMA 

A Quarterly Review of Dramatic Literature 

EDITORS 
WILLIAM NORMAN GUTHRIE CHARLES HUBBARD SERGEL 



CONTENTS FIRST NUMBER 

GIUSEPPE GIACOSA 

AS THE LEAVES By GIUSEPPE GIACOSA 

A Comedy in Four Acts 

THE CIVIC THEATRE : Suggestions Begarding its Scope 
and Organization By PERCY MACKAYE 

THE DRAMA LEAGUE OF AMERICA 

Edited by S. B. ELLIOTT 
A LONDON THEATRE LIBRE 

By G. C. ASHTON JONSON 
THE CALIFORNIA GROVE PLAY 

THE PETERBOROUGH PAGEANT 

By HAZEL MACKAYE 

HANS SACHS In tht Greek Theatre of the University of 
California By ELIZABETH WILLIS BAKSTOW 

EDITORIAL By WILLIAM NOKMAN GUTHRIE 

And forty pages of Book Reviews 



75c a Number $3.00 a Year 

Published by 

THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY 

PONTIAC BUILDING, CHICAGO 



FOR SALE 

THE DIAL, VOLUMES I. to XXV. 

1880-1898, bound in dark brown cloth. In 
perfect condition. These volumes include 
all early numbers, many of which are now 
out-of-print and not obtainable elsewhere. 

PRICE ON APPLICATION 
THE DIAL COMPANY, 203 Michigan Avenue, CHICAGO 



PART 2, VOLS. 101-227 

The first number is now ready for inspection, and, on applica- 
tion, will be mailed to every one interested in such matters. 
EDWARD ROTH, 1135 Pine Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



SEND YOUB "WANTS" TO 

WILLIAM R. JENKINS COMPANY 

Publishers, Booksellers, Stationers, Printers 
851-853 SIXTH AVE. (Cop. 48th St.), NEW YORK 


ALL BOOKS OF ALL PUBLISHERS 


Including 

FRENCH 

SPANISH, ITALIAN, 
GERMAN AND OTHER 
FOREIGN 

BOOKS 


Including 

MEDICAL 

books and works concerning 
HORSES, CATTLE, DOGS 

and other Domestic 

Animals 


Special facilities for supplying Schools, Colleges and 
. . - x , libraries. Catalogues on Application. 




HTHE ANNUAL SPRING AN- 
1 NOUNCEMENT NUMBER of 
THE DIAL, to appear as usual, March 
16, will present a notable prospectus 
of the activities of the American 
Publishing Trade at the opening of 
the season of 1911. 

IN the regular classified "List of 
Books Announced for Spring Pub- 
lication " and in the advertising pages 
of this issue will be found full ad- 
vance information regarding all the 
important new books in preparation 
for the coming season. 

'"PHE DIAL'S announcement lists have 
for many years been recognized as 
the most accurate and useful prepared 
by any periodical, and the issues con- 
taining them are relied on generally 
by the retail trade, librarians, and 
private buyers of books, in making 
up advance order-lists and planning 
future book purchases. 

TTHIS Spring Announcement Number 
is therefore one of the most im- 
portant and desirable book advertising 
mediums of the year. 

THE DIAL COMPANY 

Fine Arts Building, Chicago 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



175 



The next great issue before the American people. Pretident Taft. 
IMPORT AND OUTLOOK OF SOCIALISM 

By NEWTON MANN 

Author of " The Evolution of a Great Literature." 
" Mr. Mann is an author of large mental grasp and unusual judicial 
balance. He comes to the subject without prejudice, and presents it 
hi scholarly yet simple terms." Zion's Herald. " Probably the fair- 
est, moat candid, most deliberate attempt available to find the ethical 
import of this movement." JMSKIX LLOYD JONES. Ph.D., Chicago. 
" If we had to learn of historic, contemporary, and prophetic Social- 
ism through one book only, we know of none other which so clearly or 
attractively presents it. '' Boston Common. 

Cloth, 336 pp., $1.50 net, postage 12 cents. 

JAMES H. WEST CO. PUBLISHERS BOSTON 



Our Bargain Catalogs 

ARE WORTH YOUR ATTENTION 



A customer tcritei : " Please quote me prices ; I find it 
costly not to have communicated with you before 
purchasing. ' ' 

"A Catalog of Reference Book* offered from 25 to SO 
per cent. Discount. ' ' 

A Catalog of Book* Relating to American Hittory. 

A Catalog of Art Book*. 

A Catalog of Standard Set*. 

ONE OB ALL HAILED ON REQUEST 

Quotations Made on Special Items on Request 



The H. R. Huntting Co. 

- SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 

>f interest to ^Librarians 

The books advertised and reviewed in this 
magazine can be purchased from us at 
advantageous prices by 

public ^Libraries, 
Colleges, anfc 



In addition to these books we have an excep- 
tionally large stock of the books of all pub- 
lishers a more complete assortment than 
can be found on the shelves of any other 
bookstore in the United States, We solicit 
orders and correspondence from libraries. 

LIBRARY DEPARTMENT 

A. C. McCLURG & GO 

CHICAGO 




JOHN MARTINA 

LETTERS 
To CHILDREN and 
Ernest ThompsonSe^ 

& LETTERS TO COYS?"* 



were a child di 



like io gel a I$HNt?"Yo 



answer tlieje gueptionj and I 




THE EDITOR 

A Journal of Information 
for Literary Workers, is a 
Magazine which should 
be on file in each library 



SPECIFIC Editorial Require- 
^ ments and Full Details of all 
Prize Story Competitions are a 
Regular Feature. Just now one 
magazine is offering $10,000.00 
in Prizes for Short Stories. Par- 
ticulars in current numbers of 
THE EDITOR. 

$1.00 a Year. 15 Cent* a Copy. 

THE EDITOR COMPANY 

BOX 509, RIDGEWOOD, N. J. 



176 



THi; DIAL 



[March 1, 1911. 



BOOKS 



FOR THE OUTDOOR SEASON 



UNDER THE OPEN SKY 

Being A YEAR WITH NATURE 

By SAMUEL CHRISTIAN SCHMUCKER 

" Each lover of the delights of our open country will find a constant revelation of 
Nature's foresight and a stimulation of his powers of observation in these glowing 
descriptions, and will recognize under all the foundation of a scientific fact." 

The Literary Digest. 
With colored frontispiece, many fall-page illustrations, and marginal decorations 

by Katherine Elizabeth Schmucker. 
Small quarto, 308 pages. Cloth, gilt top, $1.50 net. In a slip case. 



Indoor Gardening 

By EBEN E. REXFORD 

" Takes up the problems that beset the 

would-be grower of potted plants, and 

explains them in a lucid, sensible way." 

New York Times. 

Colored frontispiece and 32 illustra- 
tions. Decorated title-page and lining- 
papers. Crown 8vo. Ornamental 
cloth, $1.50 net. 

The Small Country Place 

By SAMUEL T. MAYNARD 

" It is crowded full of accurate sugges- 
tions and information which will be a 
godsend indeed to the multitude of people 
who want to have their small country place 
attractive, comfortable, and, in general, 
livable." Edward Everett Hale, LL.D. 
Seventy -five illustrations from photo- 
graphs and numerous line drawings. 
12 mo. Cloth, $1.50 net. 



Four Seasons in the Garden 

By EBEN E. REXFORD 

The adornment and improvement of the 
city back yard, or the most ambitious 
garden the happy suburbanite or country 
dweller can manage without the services 
of a professional, is the theme of this 
most interesting book. 

Uniform with " INDOOR GARDENING " 
Frontispiece in tints and 27 illustra- 
tions. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.50 net. 

The Home Garden 

By EBEN E. REXFORD 

" It tells all about vegetable and small 
fruit growing in a manner that is intel- 
ligible and interesting to the amateur." 
New York Herald. 
Eight full-page illustrations. 12mo. 
198 pages. Cloth, ornamental, 
$1.25 net. 



jFtction 



" ME SMITH " By Caroline Lockhart 

Colored frontispiece and four illustrations in duotone. Decorated cloth, 
$1.20 net. Postpaid, $1.35. 

"Smith" is one type of a Western "Bad Man," but an unusually powerful and 
appealing character who grips and holds the reader through all his deeds, whether 
good or bad. It is a big story with red blood in it. There is the cry of the coyote, 
the deadly thirst for revenge as it exists in the wronged Indian, the thrill of the 
gaming table, and the gentleness of pure, true love. To the very end the tense 
dramatism of the tale is maintained without relaxation. 



The Gold Bag 

By CAROLYNE WELLS, author of" The 

Clue." 

An 18-kt detective novel. 

Colored frontispiece Cloth, with 

colored inlay, $1.20 net. Postpaid, 

$1.35. 



Out of Russia 

By CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 

Author of " The Isle of Dead SAtps." 

A stirring adventure novel. 
Colored frontispiece and three half- 
tone engravings. Cloth. $1.25 net 
Postpaid, $1.40. 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO. 



PUBLISHERS 
PHILADELPHIA 




THE DIAL PRESS, FINE ARTS BUILDING, CHICAGO. 



SPRING ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER 




<// *SMtMpNTHLY J^VffNAL OF 

CntirismT^lTsnrSsron, anfr Jirformation 



EDITED BY 
FRANCIS F. BROWNE 



\VolumeL. 
/ .Vo. 59,4. 



J0 c<*. a copy. / FINB AKTS BUILDING 



1 Q1 1 J0 c<*. a copy. N KTS UILDI 

, iyj.1. *. ai/ear. 1 203 Michigan Blvd. 



EARLY SPRING PUBLICATIONS OF 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing 

By GEORGE B. CUTTEN, President of Arcadia University. 

As the curative effect of mind over matter is more systematically practised now than ever before since 
the rise of modern science, this is a timely book of extraordinary and curious interest. Dr. Cutten gives 
the history of this movement a history far longer and of a more numerous ancestry, as appears from 
the author's picturesque and fascinating record of relics, talismen, amulets, charms, and healers, than 
most people think as practised both independent of and associated with religion. He ends with an 
illuminating study of the healers of to-day. Illustrated. 81.50 net; postpaid $1.65. 



The Pianoforte and 
Its Music 

By H. E. KREHBIEL 

Author of " How to Listen to Music," etc. 

This volume is a graphic and accurate account of 
the development of the Pianoforte as an instrument 
and of the composers and players who have been 
especially identified with that instrument from the 
beginning until our own day. 

" One of the most valuable contributions which 
have been made in recent years to the library of 
the English-speaking music lover." New York Sun. 

81.25 net-; postpaid 31.35. 



The Patrician 



ttrmarfeablt 



The Education of a Music Lover 

A Booh for Those Who Study 
or Teach the Art of Listening 

By EDWARD DICKINSON 
Professor of the History and Criticism 
of Music, Oberlin College ; author of 
" The Study of the History of Music " 
and ' Music in the Western Church." 

CONTENTS 
The New Musical Ednca- The Art of Song :' Music 

and Poetry 
The Art of Song: The Tech- 

nique of the Singer 
The Problem of Expression : 

Representative Music 
The Beauty of Melody Music History and Biog- 

and Rhythm . raphy 

The Beauty of_Harruony The Music Lover and the 
Higher Law 

81.50 net ; postage extra 



tion 
The Music Lover's Need 

of Education 
Definite Hearing : The 

Problem of Form 



Performance : The Art of 
the Pianist 



By JOHN GALSWORTHY 

A graphic novel of aristocratic English life in which the writer displays not only the narrative skill which 
distinguished a " Country House " and " A Motley," but to a degree striking in a novel those dramatic 
powers which roused admiration for his plays " Strife " and " Justice." It contains a love story so moving 
that its equal cannot often be found anywhere. Besides its intense interest merely as a story filled with 
scenes and incidents of great reality and with fascinating characters skillfully portrayed, it has this further 
significance: With no direct comment, with absolute impartiality, it presents and analyzes the British 
Aristocracy at a moment when certain legislation seems likely to change radically that great, definite, 
historical class. >*TTTTO>>^ 81.35 net ; postpaid 81.45. 

(SEE TWO FOLLOWING PAGES' 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 




FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



178 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



The Scribner Spring Publications 


|2obd0 


Si (General ^tetor? of fltt &me0 


Robert Kimberly 


" Ars Una : Species Mille " 
A NEW VOLUME 

The Art of Northern Italy 


By FRANK H. SPEAR- 
MAN, author of "Whis- 
pering Smith." 
Against a background of wealth 
and extravagance the writer shows 
the financier, Kimberly once 
skeptical of love and religion 
now deep in love with a religious 
woman whose husband's career he 
control. Kimberly's course in this 
situation the woman's struggle 
between her love for him and her 


By CORRADO RICCI, Director of the Royal Gallery, Parma. 
A compact, clear account of the history of all kinds of art in Northern Italy 
from the earliest times, written by one of the most distinguished authorities 
in Italy. Profusely illustrated. 
500 Illustrations, 4 in Color. $1.50 net; postpaid $1.65. 

PUBLISHED EARLIER 

Art in Great Britain and Ireland 


religion lead from one striking 
scene to another ; from dramatic 
event to dramatic event, and cul- 
minate in an extraordinary climax. 
Illustrations in full color by 
JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG. 
$1.30 net ; postage extra. 

Master and Maid 


By Sir WALTER ARMSTRONG, Director of the National Gallery of 
Ireland. 
" The author has done an amaziugly good piece of work, reviewing all minor 
arts as well as architecture, painting, and sculpture." New York Sun. 
500 Illustraiions, 4 in Color. $1.50 net; postpaid $1.65. 

TO APPEAR SHORTLY 

The History of Art in France 


By Monsieur LOUIS HOURTICO 
" These are not esoteric and pedantic studies. They are clear, straightfor- 
ward volumes in which, with a light touch, the different authors cut to the 
bone and give the reader the essential facts. They are richly supplied with 
bibliographical notes, so that the student may easily follow up a given phase 
of the subject, and they are well indexed. The illustrations make by them- 
selves a fascinating feature. Those filling an entire page are printed in colors. 
and the rest of the six hundred pictures are printed in half-tone on a small 
scale, but with great clearness. The volumes are small and are strongly but 
flexibly bound. There has never been another series like this one, and we 
believe that it will prove increasingly popular for many years to come." The 
New York Tribune. $1.50 net ; postpaid $1.65. 

The Adventures of James Capen Adams: 


By L. ALLEN BARKER 
Author of "Miss Esperance 
and Wycherly." 
" Decidedly the freshest and most 
entertaining romance that the new 
year has brought. We have known 
a multitude of Celtic heroines, but 
few with the grace and appealing 
womanliness of Lallie." Phila- 
delphia Press. 
$1.25 net ; postpaid $1.35. 

The Married Life 


Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California 

By THEODORE H. HITTELL 

" The story is written with the simplicity and directness of ' Robinson Crusoe.' 
Adams tells how he took to the woods and the capture of wild animals. His 
story is more exciting than most ' dime novels.' His stories of his pet bears, 
Lady Washington and Ben Franklin, are delightful, and the accounts of hunt- 
ing game of all kinds are very exciting. The book will charm readers, old 
and young, who come across it anywhere." New York Sun. 
$1.50 net ; postpaid $1.65. 

Original Narrative of Early American History Series 

Narratives of Early Carolina 


of the Frederic 


Carrolls 


By JESSE LYNCH 
WILLIAMS 

Sixth Edition 

" A brilliant summation of real 
things in life." 
Philadelphia North American. 
" It is a long story and a gently 
human one, sunshiny and abund- 
antly touched with humor, not 
lacking, therefore, true wisdom." 
New York Tribune. 
Illustrated. $1.50. 


Edited by A. S. SALLEY, Jr. 
" Admirably done, both from the editorial and the publishing side, and likely 
to be of constantly increasing usefulness to students, schools, and libraries, as 
time goes on." GEORGE B. ADAMS, Ph.D., Professor of History in Yale. 
xrfn////7?>v Illustrated with Maps and Facsimiles. 
^pl^^A, $3.00 net ; postage extra. 


CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



179 



The Scribner Spring Publications 


CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS WILL PUBLISH IN APRIL: 

A Revised Edition of ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON'S LETTERS^which 
contain* more than 100 new Letter* written chiefly to intimate friend*. 

THE WEST IN THE EAST FROM AN AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW, by 
Price Collier, author of "England and the English from an American 
Point of View. ' ' 

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR AND THE MILITARY POLICY OF THE 
UNITED STATES, by General Franci* Vinon Greene the firtt of a 
terie* of three book* which will cover the entire military history of the 
United State*. 

TRAILS OF THE PATHFINDERS, by George Bird Grinnell, which sketches. 
the career* of Alexander Henry, Lewi* and Clarke, Jonathan Carver, 
and other early pioneer*. 

geological 


The Camera 


Fiend 


By E. W. HORNUNG 
Author of " Raffles." 
Although the charming heroine 
alone is excuse enough for this 
novel, its main interest lies in the 
tracking down of a cunning crim- 
inal by an astute young detective 
himself a character of strong 


Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Voi.ni. 


individuality. The first page of 
the book is exciting, and the 
excitement is kept up without a 
pause by murders, disappearances, 
and all manner of sensational en- 
counters which finally bring up 
at a climax that startles. 
Illus. $1.25 net; postage extra. 

hotels Kcadp in &pril 


Edited by JAMES HASTINGS, M.A., Hon. D.D., F.R.A.I. 
Editor of the " Dictionary of the Bible" and of the " Dictionary of 
Christ and the Gospels." 
The " Encyclopaedia " will contain an account of all beliefs and customs which 
belong to religion or ethics throughout the world. It will also contain articles 
on the religions themselves or on the nations professing them, and when the 
belief or custom belongs to more religions than one, or is found in more than 
one place, it will then be treated in a series of articles, each article being 
written by a scholar of the particular religion or country. 
Cloth. $7.00 net per volume; Half Morocco, $9.00 net per volume. 
Sold only by subscription for the complete set. 

John the Loyal Studies in the Ministry of the Baptist 


Brazenhead the 


Great 


By A. T. ROBERTSON, D.D., Professor of New Testament Interpre- 
tation in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
Dr. Robertson's style is graphic, positively pointed, brilliant, and, while 
scholarly and reverent, yet thoroughly popular. The vividness, freshness, 
and grasp of this book are such that all who wish a book about John will 
feel that they must have this one, whether they have another or not. 
llJmo. Cloth. $1.25 net; postage extra. 

The Messages of the Poets 


By MAURICE HEWLETT 
In this new book Mr. Hewlett 
has created a most bizarre, amus- 
ing, and picturesque character 
whose extraordinary adventures 
he describes with the astonishing 
power of romantic narrative and 
poetic description, and with a 
return to the literary style and 
atmosphere which made "Little 
Novels of Italy " and " New 
Canterbury Tales " so exceptional 
and so popular. 
Price $1.50. 

Brother Copas 


By Professor NATHANIEL SCHMIDT, Ph.D., ef Cornell University. 
il The Messages of the Poets" is the eleventh volume of "The Messages of the 
Bible," a series of hand-books edited by President Frank K. Sanders, D.D., 
of Washbnrn College, and Professor Charles Foster Kent, Ph.D., of Yale 
University. In the present volume the attempt has been made to reproduce 
the peculiar poetic structure of the Book of Job and to estimate its ethical 
and religious significance. Square IQmo. Cloth. $1.25 net; postage 13 cents. 

History of Christian Thought 


By Sir A. T. QUILLER- 
COUCH("Q") 
The delightfully amusing whim- 
isieal adventures of some old 
"brothers" in St. Hospital-by- 
Merton and an original and lovable 
little girl. The steady growth 
of his audiences has made Quiller- 
Conch one of the most widely 
read novelists of to-day in this 
country as well as in England. 
Probably $1.20 net ; postage extra. 


from the Reformation to Kant 


By A. C. McGIFFERT, Ph.D., D.D., Professor of Church History in the 
Union Theological Seminary, New York. 
A new volume in the important series of hand-books, "Studies in Theology," 
which aims to bring all the resources of modern learning to the interpretation of 
the Scriptures, and to place within the reach of all who are interested the broad 
conclusions arrived at by men of distinction in the world of Christian scholarship 
on the great problems of Faith and Destiny. ^. ^ 
12 mo. Cloth. 75 cents net. /^jj^Mi^ 


CHARLES SCR/BNER'S SONS FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 



180 THE DIAL, [March 16, 



NEW YORK r'HTPAHO SAN FRANCISCO 

9084 Metropolitan Life Bldg. V_,rilV^r\.VjrW 746 Pacific Building 

A. C. McCLURG & CO.'S 

Announcements-Spring, 1911 

Love Under Fire. By Randall Parrish, author of " My Lady of the South," " Keith of the Border," etc . 

With 5 full-color illustrations by Alonzo Kimball. Crown 8 vo. $1.35 net. 

In the course of his wooing the gallant Northerner, Lieutenant Galesworth, has his hands full, and 
goes through as exciting a series of adventures as even his dashing nature could desire. 

Prince or Chauffeur? A Story of Newport. By Lawrence Perry, author of "Dan Merrithew." With 

4 full-color illustrations by J. V. McFall. Crown 8vo. $1.35 net. 

The Prince is a Russian, and the chauffeur is not a real one, but a young American who does not 
propose to let the Prince interfere with his two most important objects in life one of which the trained 
novel reader can imagine. 

Bar-20 Days. By Clarence E. Mulf ord, author of " Hopalong Cassidy," " Bar-20," etc. With 5 full- 
color illustrations by Maynard Dixon. Crown 8vo. $1.35 net. 

Hopalong Cassidy and other old friends appear in this swiftly-moving, well-told tale, by a writer 
who knows ranch life like a book. 

A Breath of Prairie and Other Stories. By Will Lillibridge, author of " Ben Blair," " The Dominant 
Dollar," etc. With 5 full -col or illustrations by J. N. Marchand. Crown 8 vo. $1.20 net. 

The thirteen stories which comprise this volume, seven of them dealing with Dakota life, were found 
among the papers of the late author of " Ben Blair," and were so remarkable it was decided to issue them 
in book form. 

Love Besieged. By Charles E. Pearce, author of " The Bungalow Under the Lake," etc. With 5 full- 
color illustrations by H. S. De Lay. Crown 8vo. $1.20 net. 

A really thrilling story in which the Indian Mutiny and some of its most terrible episodes are 
effectively presented. 

Robert Louis Stevenson in California. By Katharine D. Osbourne. With numerous illustrations. 
Square 8vo. $2.00 net. 

Mrs. Osbourne has written an account of the famous writer's sojourn in California, reproducing many 
of her step-father's hitherto unpublished letters. 

From Rough Rider to President. Translated by Prof. Frederick von Riethdorf from the German of 
Dr. Max Kullnick. With frontispiece portrait. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

This biography of Theodore Roosevelt is written from a German standpoint, and it will interest 
Americans greatly to see just what qualities in the Colonel appeal to the Teutonic mind. 

The War Maker. The True Story of Captain George Boynton. By Horace Smith. Illustrated. 
$1.50 net. 

Few works of fiction contain as stirring adventures as these of the famous " soldier of fortune" 
Captain Boynton, the filibustering, smuggling internationalist, who has sought excitement and danger 
in every part of the earth, and in the service of every cause. 

Gettysburg : The Pivotal Battle of the Civil War. By R. K. Beecham, late Captain Second Wisconsin 

Infantry. With many illustrations and maps. Crown 8vo. $1.75 net. 

The publishers believe this to be one of the best short accounts of the battle of Gettysburg ever 
written, as the author fought on the Union side at Gettysburg and has spent many years in preparing 
to write his account of the momentous fight. 

The Physiology of Faith and Fear. By Dr. William S. Sadler, author of "The Science of Living," 

"The Cause and Cure of Colds," etc. Illustrated. 8vo. $1.50 net. 

This is the third in Dr. Sadler's series of medical books for the layman. He has written this 
book to take up the matter of mind cure from every side and present it in popular language. 

Half-Hours with the Summer Stars. By Mary Proctor (daughter of the late Richard A. Proctor). 
Illustrated. Small 16 mo. 75 cents net. 

Written for readers unacquainted with the lay of the heavens and will open to them a fascinating 
realm of study and enjoyment. 

Cone Bearing Trees of the California Mountains. By J. Smeaton Chase. Illustrated from photo- 
graphs and drawings. 12mo. Cloth, 75 cents net. Leather, $1.50 net. 

The numerous pine trees of California are here presented in full-page photographic plates and line 
drawings by Mr. Chase, and his pictures are accompanied by full but non-technical descriptions. 



1911.] THE DIAL 181 



A. Q McClurg & Co.'s Spring Announcements 

Nature Sketches in Temperate America. By Dr. Joseph L. Hancock. With over 200 illustrations 
from original drawings and photographs, and 1 2 in color. Crown 8 vo. $2.75 net. 
This constitutes a splendid introduction of nature study for the amateur, gives the layman a most 

interesting and accurate summary of the doctrines of evolution^, and at the same time is adapted for 

school and college text book purposes, and contains some original observations that will interest the 

advanced biologist. 

French Men, Women, and Books. By Miss Betham-Ed wards, author of " Home Life in France," " Lit- 
erary Rambles in France," etc. Illustrated. Large 8vo. $2.50 net. 
The present book is more a general study of French character and literature, and it has much charm 

of style and shows the same intimate knowledge of French life and thought. 

Fried rich Nietzsche : The Diony sian Spirit of the Age. By A. R. Orage, author of " Nietzsche in Out- 
line and Aphorism." With frontispiece reproduction of the statue of Nietzsche by Max Klein. 
Tall 18mo. 75 cents net. 

In this small book Mr. Orage has given what is without doubt the shortest and clearest summary 
of the great iconoclast's philosophy ever published. 

The Humbler Poets. Second Series. By Wallace and Frances Rice, Compilers. A Collection of News- 
paper and Periodical Verse, 1885 to 1910. Octavo. $1.50 net. 

The first series of "The Humbler Poets" contained a collection of such poems up to 1885, and its 
success has resulted in this second volume, which brings the work of the lesser known poets down to date. 

The Lawrence Reader and Speaker. By Prof. Edwin Gordon Lawrence, author of " The Power of 
Speech." Octavo. $1.50 net. 

The author of this reader has had thirty years' experience as an actor and later as teacher of acting, 
elocution, and voicebuilding. This work contains nearly a hundred selections, in addition to chapters 
on reading and oratory which will be found a simple guide to those facile acquirements. 

Old English Instruments of Music : Their History and Character. By Francis W. Galpin, M. A. Illus- 
trated. Large 8vo. $2.50 net 

This is the only work which deals especially with the history of the bygone instruments of the 
English people. 

Master Musicians. By J. Cuthbert Hadden, author of " Chopin," " Haydn," " The Operas of Wagner," 
etc. A book for Players, Singers, and Listeners. With 15 art mounted portraits. Gilt top. 
Crown 8vo. $1.75 net. 
The personal lives of some of the greatest of the world's composers are sympathetically sketched in 

this attractive volume. 

War or Peace : A Present Day Duty and a Future Hope. By Gen. Hiram M. Chittenden, U. S. A., 
author of " The American Fur Trade of the Far West," " Yellowstone National Park, Historical 
and Descriptive," etc. Octavo. $1.00 net. 
Gen. Chittenden opposes war on practical as well as ethical grounds, but his pacific tendencies are 

not sentimental and he does not advocate complete disarmament by this or any nation. He does, 

however, make concrete suggestions for the furtherance of universal peace. 

The Woman Movement in America. By Belle Squire. A Short Study of the American Struggle for 
Equal Rights. Illustrated. Small 12 mo. 75 cents net. 

While the book is the result of voluminous research, the author's style is so sprightly as to engage 
the interest of the most indifferent. Much of the matter has appeared in different form in the Chicago 
Sunday Tribune, and some of the chapters have particular reference to the work of Illinois women. 

Farm Dairying. By Laura Rose. Profusely illustrated. 12mo. $1.50 net. 

Every phase of the Dairy business is covered from the farmer's standpoint by Miss Rose, who has for 
the past twelve years taught Dairying in the Ontario Agricultural College. 

The Practical Country Gentleman A Handbook for the Owner of a Country Estate, Large or 
Small. By Edward K. Parkinson, author of " A Guide to the Country Home." Fully illustrated. 
12mo. $1.25 net. 
The author has written for the farmer who wishes to use the best methods but who cannot attend an 

agricultural college, and for the city man who wishes to take up farming and .who has no previous experience. 

The Soul of a Flower. By Sara A. Hubbard, author of " The Religion of Cheerfulness," etc. Boards, 
novelty style. 18mo. 50 cents net. 

This is another of Mrs. Hubbard's popular essays, uplifting and poetic in sentiment. 

My Friend Will. Two books by Chas. F. Lummis. Small 18mo. Illustrated. 

The Gold Fish of Gran Chimu. Each 75 cents net. 



The latter 



The first named is a chapter of human experience which carries a message to all in affliction or adversity, 
atter is a new edition of one of Mr. Lummis's classics. 



182 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



Robert Hichens New Novel 




"Che Dweller on 
the Threshold 

By the author of 

"The Garden of Allah," 

" Bella Donna," etc. 



Robert Hichens 9 s 

THE DWELLER 

ON THE 

THRESHOLD 

A magical novel which has drawn on 
all the new realms of knowledge and 
research, wonderful in its word paint- 
ing, fascinating in its style. 

"IS NOT THE GREATEST WRITER 
OF FICTION TODAY TO BE 
FOUND IN ROBERT HICHENS?" 

12 mo, 273 pages. 
Price, $1.00 net, postage 10 cents 



WHEN 
HALF-GODS GO 

By Helen R. Martin 

A brilliant and heart-stirring chronicle of a 
wife's struggle to hold her husband's love 
and loyalty played out to the only pos- 
sible ending, with a cast of four. Trench- 
antly told, human, vital. 

12mo, 154 pages 
Price, $1.00 net, postage 7 cents 



MOLLY 
MAKE-BELIEVE 

By Eleanor Hallowell Abbott 

Not a book of letters, but the plot turns, in 
most novel and delightful fashion, on Molly's 
letters whimsical, merry, sympathetic, 
teasing, altogether adorable. 

"THOSE LOVE LETTERS; YOU'VE 
SIMPLY GOT TO READ THEM." 

Pictures 
Price, $1.00 net, postage 8 cents 



COMING IN APRIL 



MISS LIVINGSTON'S COMPANION 

A dramatic and picturesque story of old New York, by Mary C. Dillon. 



THE CENTURY CO. 



UNION SQUARE 



NEW YORK 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



183 



MOFFAT, YARD 
4. COMPANY 



BOOKS OF REAL IMPORTANCE 



MOFFAT, YARD 
& COMPAAY 



THE WORLD OF LIFE 

\ 

A Manifestation of Creative Power, Directive Mind, and Ultimate Purpose 

By ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, O.M., F.R.S., D.C.L. 

8vo. $3.00 net. By mail, $330. 

" The impressive importance of the book," writes William Roseoe Thayer, of Harvard, " lies in the author's 
deductions. These I read with great interest and with such competence as anyone may have who has been 
reading for thirty years the various solutions to the cosmic riddle which philosophers and men of science 
have been putting forth. As a demonstration of 'all's for the best,' that life is a progress upward, with 
the implication that this view involves, Wallace's book is certain to make a deep impression. He cannot 
prove immortality, but he is right in insisting that, if his premises are correct, immortality must follow. 
. . . So, too, in regard to the mystery of pain, Wallace's theory will have to be reckoned with. It is his 
fundamental contention that life is not created by matter but expresses itself through matter." 



THE INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY 

By MAX NORDAU 8vo. $2.00 net. By mail, $2.18. 

CONTENTS 

I. History and the Writing of History. V. Society and the Individual. 

II. The Customary Philosophy of History. VI. The Psychological Roots of Religion. 

III. Anthropomorphic View of History. VII. The Psychological Premises of History. 

IV. Man and Nature. VIII. The Question of Progress. 

This closely-reasoned work will make a strong appeal to all thoughtful students of history and philosophy. 
Beginning with the proposition that history is only to a small extent included in written history ; that 
written history is not scientific; that it is not descriptive; that it provides no knowledge; that it does not 
help in the struggle for existence; that it corresponds with no natural requirements of the human mind; 
that, in a word, its practical purpose is to oppress and deceive the present with the assistance of the past; 
the celebrated author, by a brilliant and convincing cumulation of reasoning, concludes that, behind all 
appearances and all delusions, the real meaning of history is found to be the manifestation of the life 
force in man. 



BASSET, A Village Chronicle 

By S. G. TALLENTYRE 

Author of the " Life of Mirabeau," etc. 

12mo. $1.25 net. By mail, $1.37. 

A novel of exquisite quality, told in brilliant pictures. 
Scene, rural England. 



SONNETS FOR CHOICE 

By MARGARET CHANLER ALDRICH 

12mo. $1.00 net. By mail, $1.10. 
" Depth of thought, breadth of vision, and lofty imag- 
ination are given the freest play. ... It is something 
to have carven sonnets in fine gold." 

San Francisco Chronicle. 



GRAY DAYS AND GOLD 



BY WILLIAM WINTER 

Uniform wilh " Shakespeare's England." Large 8vo. Elaborately illustrated. 
This is much more than the celebrated book of many editions under 
rewritten and largely new. 



Boxed, $3.00 net. By mail, $3.30. 
this title. It is almost wholly 



I. Southampton. X. 

II. Salisbury ; Stonehenge. XI. 

III. Haunts of Moore. XII. 

IV. Bath and Bristol. XIU. 
V. The Faithful City. XIV. 

VI. Lichfield ; Dr. Johnson. XV. 

VH. Bosworth ; King Richard. XVI. 

Vm. Old York. XVII. 

IX. Stratford Gleanings. 



CONTENTS 

The Childs Fountain. 

The Shakespeare Church. 

Rambles in Arden. 

On the Avon. 

Hereford; Tintern Abbey. 

Tennyson. 

Stratford to Nottingham. 

Nottingham ; Newstead. 



XVIII. Byron. 

XIX. Hucknall-Torkard Church 

XX. Haunts of Wordsworth. 

XXI. Gray and Arnold. 

XXII. Through Surrey and Kent. 

XXIII. A French Vignette. 

XXIV. London to Edinburgh. 
XXV. Memorials. 



MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 



NEW YORK CITY 



184 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS OF 

D. APPLETON & COMPANY 

29-35 West Thirty-second Street, New York City 



DIAZ: MASTER OF MEXICO 

By JAMES CREELMAN 

Illustrated from Portraits, Photographs, Paintings, etc. 8vo, cloth, $2.00 net. 

This timely volume is more than a biography of the remarkable Mexican President. Besides relating the chief events 
in the life of Diaz, the book describes the evolution of the Mexico of 1848 into the Mexico of to-day. This is done chiefly 
through narrating the rise of Diaz from obscurity to prominence, the part which he took in the creation of the modern 
regime out of the old, and the chief events of his long reign as President of the Mexican Eepublic, and in particular by a 
full setting forth of the situation as it exists at the present day in the Mexican Republic. Mr. Creelman had unusual 
opportunities for gathering material and his book contains a large amount of new and illuminating data. 

EGYPT: ANCIENT SITES AND MODERN SCENES 

By G. MASPERO 

Profusely illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top. $6.00 special net. 

" A delightful book about Egypt which every traveller on the Nile should read. The author takes his readers up the river 
from the delta to Assuan. He tells what he sees on the way ; sometimes only the modern scene, sometimes a story of 
antiquarian research, but always entertaining. The book shows the Nile Valley to those who visit it and to those who 
cannot go there in person in most attractive form." New York Sun. 

FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES 

By F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS 

Newlv revised and enlarged. 12 pictures in color and about 220 Drawings from Nature bv the Author. Large 12mo. 

Cloth, $1.75 net. 

This manual has been brought up to date by a thorough and systematic revision. A supplement has been added contain- 
ing information about many trees which were not discussed in the earlier editions. The result is that the book, which 
long has been standard, is now quite the most modern and reliable handbook in its field. 

THE PRINCIPLES OF INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT 

By JOHN CHRISTIE DUNCAN, Ph.D. 

12mo, cloth, $2.00 net. 

The object of this book is to present a scientific treatise on the business management of corporations. It furnishes more 
than the mere methods of making entries in books. It covers such points as Locations for Plants, Business Specialization, 
Plant Layouts, Fire Precaution, Power Problems, Plant Management, Keeping Records, The Labor Force, etc. 

RAILROAD TRAFFIC AND RATES 

By EMORY R. JOHNSON and GROVER G. HUEBNER 

Elaborately illustrated with Maps, Charts, Diagrams, and forms. 8vo, cloth, 2 volumes, $5.00 net. 
These volumes have been written primarily to meet the demand for authentic information regarding the intricate and 
detailed work connected with railroad traffic and rate making. The work is the result of years of study and investigation. 
Each chapter has been read and criticised by practical railroad men who are experts on the subjects covered. The book 
will be useful to railroad men, financiers, government officers, large shippers, university students, and all those interested 
in transportation questions. 

THE PREVENTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES 

By ALVAH H. DOTY, M.D. 

With complete index. 12mo, cloth, $2.50 net. 

The splendid work which Dr. Doty, as Health Officer of the Port of New York, has been doing for years in saving New York 
from the spread of infectious diseases gives his book special importance. He deals with the subject from the practical 
standpoint, and presents the latest knowledge relative to the transmission of infectious diseases and the means by which 
they may be prevented. 

THE AMERICAN YEAR BOOK FOR 1910 



A Record of Events and Progress 



887 Pages. Completely indexed. Small 8vo. red cloth, $3.50 net. 

The American Year Book records the happenings during the year in every department of human activity, with especial 
stress on American affairs. It is not to be confused with the ordinary newspaper almanacs. It covers progress in the 
fields of science, history, literature, art, sociology, politics, commerce, etc., and has in addition concise national and inter- 
national statistics ; a chronology of notable events ; a select bibliography ; and a variety of tabular matter. It has been 
the aim of the editors to reach the highest point of authority and accuracy. All the departments have been handled by 
experts. The work is arranged with the idea of serving the busy man who wishes his information to be compact and 
absolutely reliable. 



1911.] 



THE DIAL 



185 



NEW BOOKS OF GENERAL INTEREST 

You may find JUST THE BOOK you want for a friend, for a customer, for your library, 
whether public or private, or even for yourself, by CONSULTING THIS PAGE. 

IMPORTANT FICTION 



George Barr McCutcheon's 

WHAT'S-HIS-NAME 

One of the brightest, truest, most touching, and 
most delightful stories that George Barr 
McCutcheon has ever -written. 
Full-page illustrations in color by HARRISON 
FISHER. 12mo. $1.20 net. 

William Hamilton Os home's 

THE CATSPAW 

A remarkable detective story by the clever law- 
yer who wrote " The Red Mouse," whose ability 
to tell a story that grips will make his new book 
one of the leaders of the season. 

Illustrated. 12mo. $1.25 net. 

Rina Ramsay's 

THE WAY OF A WOMAN 

How the adventurous, romantic, astonishingly 
unusual way of a very lovely and winsome woman 
led at last to the goal of all true heroines. 
Illustrated. 12mo. $1.25 net. 

Gouverneur Morris's 

YELLOW MEN AND GOLD 

Adventure of the breathless, stirring, sit-up-at- 
night-till-you-finish-it order. 

Illustrated. 12mo. $1.20 net. 



Louis Joseph Vance's 

CYNTHIA-OF-THE-MINUTE 

Louis Joseph Vance is the man who knows how 
to write a thrilling story of modern adventure 
and romance. 
Illustrated by A. I, KELLER. l'2mo. $1.25 net. 

Henry C. Rowland's 

THE MAGNET 

Says a prominent bookseller : *' I will surely re- 
commend THE MAGNET as being the best story 
written within many years." 

Illustrated. 12o. $1.25 net. 

Robert W. Service's 

THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT 

A thrilling tale of the Klondike by an author 
whose two previous books about the same country 
have sold over 100,000 copies. 

Illustrated. 12su>. $1.30 net. 

Morris B. Wells's 

FIVE GALLONS OF GASOLINE 

If one owns an automobile, or hopes to own one. 
or has ridden around in one, then here is exactly 
the right novel. 

Illustrated. 12mo. $1.20 net. 



ESSAYS AND BELLES LETTRES 



Gilbert K. Chesterton's 

ALARMS AND DISCURSIONS 

This brilliant writer's latest book. " What's Wrong 
With the World ? " was one of the best selling books 
outside of fiction last Fall. 12mo. $1.50 net. 

TRAVEL 
Esther Singleton's 

HOW TO VISIT THE 
GREAT PICTURE GALLERIES 

Contains just the information the average tourist 

needs and desires. Handy pocket size, cloth. 

$2.00 net ; limp leather $2.50 special net. 

W. H. Koebel's 

ARGENTINA, PAST AND PRESENT 

A very sane, interesting, and illuminating book 

about our lusty young neighbor to the southward. 

Illustrated. Large Svo. $4.00 net. 



E. Temple Thurston's 

THE PATCHWORK PAPERS 

There conld be no more characteristicallyf resh, sim- 
ple, and delightful book from the author of " The 
City of Beautiful Nonsense." 12mo. $1.20 net. 

MISCELLANEOUS 
Dr. Frederic Taber Cooper's 

THE CRAFTSMANSHIP OF WRITING 

An extremely practical, sensible, well-thought-out 
guide to young authors and would-be authors. 
12mo. $1.20 net. 



THE 



Waldemar Kaempffert's 

NEW ART OF FLYING 



Bound to be popular, for it 's the latest, clearest, 
and most entertaining book on aviation. 

Many illustrations. Svo. $1.50 net. 



DODD, MEAD & COMPANY Publishers New York City 



186 THE DIAL [March 16, 

SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY RELIGION 

OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

NEW BOOKS 

THE CHRIST MYTH BY ARTHUR DREWS, Professor of Philosophy at Karlruhe. 

Pp. 304. Cloth. $2.25 net. 

An Essay in Christian Mythology along lines similar to " Pagan Christs" " Christianity and Mythology." 
The author's conclusion is that Jesus was not a historical figure but the suffering God of a Jewish sect. 

TRUTH ON TRIAL: An Exposition of the nature of Truth, preceded by a critique 
of Pragmatism. By PAUL CARUS, Ph.D. Pp.144. Cloth. $1.00. Paper, 50 cents. 

The Open Court Publishing Co. have brought out the following books, by two famous scientists, at a great expenditure 
of money and labor, giving the reader a clear and simple, but thorough, understanding of the subjects. 

By HUGO DE VRIES 

of To.J ay . 



THE MUTATION THEORY 

Experiments and Observations on the Origin of Species in the Vegetable Kingdom. (.2 vols.) Bibliography and 
Index. Price $4.00 per vol. net. 582 pp. 114 illustrations. Six colored plates (lithographs). 

Dr. John M. Coulter of the University of Chicago, says in the flotanical Gazette : " The Open Court Publishing Com- 
pany is to be congratulated for their real contribution to the advancement of knowledge in assuming the responsibility 
of publishing an English translation of Hugo De Vries's great work entitled, ' The Mutation Theory.' " 

INTRACELLULAR PANGENESIS 

An investigation of the physiology of heredity, especially the facts of variation and of atavism. 300 pp. Cloth. $3.00. 

" The most important contribution to science by the greatest living botanist." New York 8un. 

"Any ne_w book by Hugo de Vries is bound to be read with interest, not only because of the part which the author has 
played in giving us the mutation theory, but also because it may help to settle some other more doubtful points in that 
theory. In 1868 Darwin himself wrote to J. D. Hooker: ' I feel sure if Pangenesis is now still-born, it will, thank God ! at 
some future time reappear, begotten by some other father and christened by some other name.' Had Charles Darwin 
lived, he would have seen how successfully Hugo de Vries revealed the great truth contained in his well-abused Hypothesis 
of Pangenesis. Although it can never be absolutely demonstrated as true, the formulation of the hypothesis of intra- 
cellular pangenesis marks the beginning of the greatest and most important forward step made in the study of the origin 
of species since 1849. Indeed, it led up directly to the conception of mutation as one method of the origin of species, and 
resulted in permanently removing the entire question of organic evolution from the realm of ineffective speculation and 
establishing it upon the firm basis of experimentation. The importance of the hypothesis is admirably set forth by Prof. 
Gager in his excellent preface in citing Strasburger's paper on Typisclte und allotypisclie Kerntheilunfi, a paper which 
shows how the hypothesis of intracellular pangenesis may assist in forming some comprehensible picture of the mechan- 
ism of matter in the living state " Scientific A merican. 

" Though it attracted little attention at the time of its appearance, an honorable place in the history of our science 
must be accorded to the" paper published by De Vries (1889) under the title Intracellular Pangenesis. This essay is remark- 
able as a clear foreshadowing of that conception of unit-characters which was destined to play so large a part in the 
development of genetics." An extract from Mendel's " Principles of Heredity," by Bateson, 

SPECIES AND VARIETIES: Their Origin by Mutation 

Second Edition, thoroughly Corrected and Revised, with Portraits. Price, postpaid, $5.00 net. xxiii.+ 830 pages. 
8vo, cloth, gilt top. A readable recital of the facts and details which furnish the basis for the mutation theory of the 
origin of species. 

PLANT BREEDING 

Comments on the Experiments of Nilson and Burbank. A scientific book in simple language. Of special value to 
every botanist, horticulturist, and farmer. Pp. xv. +360. Illustrated with 114 beautiful half-tone plates from nature. 
Cloth. Price, $1.50 net. Mailed, $1.70. 

By PROFESSOR ERNST MACH 

"Science is the economy of thought.' 1 (Science of Mechanics, p. 481.) 
JUST PUBLISHED 

THE HISTORY AND THE ROOT OF THE PRINCIPLES OF 

CONSERVATION OF ENERGY Translated by Philip E. B. Jourdain. Cloth. $1.25 net. 

THE SCIENCE OF MECHANICS A Critical and Historical Account of Its Development. 
Illustrated. $2.00 net. " A useful supplement to the ordinary text-book." The Physical Review. 

POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES Illustrated. $1.50net. Paper, 60 cents. 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE SENSATIONS 

Translated by C. M. Williams. $1.25 net. " A wonderfully original little book." William James. 

SPACE AND GEOMETRY IN THE LIGHT OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL 
AND PHYSICAL INQUIRY 

Translated by T. J. McCormack. Cloth, gilt top. $1.00 net. " Any reader who possesses a slight knowledge of 
mathematics may derive from these essays a very adequate idea of the abstruse yet important researches of meta-geometry ." 

THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Publishers and Importers of Standard Works of Science 
Philosophy and the History of Religion Ancient and Modern 

Send for complete illustrated catalogue. 378-388 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO 



1911.] 



TELE DIAL 



187 



Announcing Lippincott's 
New Spring Books 



The Capitals of China 

By WILLIAM EDGAR GEIL 
Author of" The Great Wall of Chin*." 

With one hundred illustrations and 12 maps. 
Large 8vo. Cloth, $5.00 net. Ready in April. 



From Memory's Shrine 

By CARMAN SYLVA (Queen of RoumaniaJ 
A remarkable book of Her Majesty's 

reminiscences. 

With photogravure frontispiece and other illus- 
trations. Cloth. $2.50 net. Ready in March. 



A Short History of the United States Navy 

By CAPTAIN GEORGE R. CLARK. U. S. N., and OTHERS 
With 16 full-page illustrations and many pictures in the text. Cloth, $3.00 net. Ready in April- 



An Unknown People in an 
Unknown Land 

By W. BARBROOKE GRUBB 

With 60 illustrations and a map. Octavo. 

33 pages. Cloth, $3.50 net. 



Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings 
of Europe 

By S. BARING-GOULD, M.A. 

With 10 full-page illustrations. Octavo. 319 

pages. Cloth, $3.50 net. 



Seventeen Years Among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo 

By EDWIN H. GOMES, M.A. 

A record of Intimate Association with the Natives of the Bornean Jungles. 
With 40 illustrations and a map. Svo. 343 pages. Cloth, $3.50 net. 



Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots 

By SIR ANDREW H. L. ERASER. K.C.S.I. 

With 34 illustrations and a map. Svo. 

368 pages. Cloth, $3.50 net. 



Oriental Cairo 

Tke City of the "Arabian Nights " 

By DOUGLAS SLADEN 
With 63 intimate pictures, and the newest map of 
Cairo. Large Svo. 417 pages. Cloth, $5.00 net. 



New Spring Novels 



99 A BIG NOVEL OUT OF THE WEST 

By CAROLINE LOCKHART 
THIRD LARGE EDITION. Five illustrations. Cloth, $1.20 net. Postpaid $1.32. 



The Gold Bag 



By CAROLYN'WELLS 
An iS-kt detective novel by the author of 

" The Clue." Colored frontispiece. 
Cloth, picture inlay, $1.20 net. Postpaid $1.32. 

EIGHTH LARGE EDIT/ON 

Rontledge Rides Alone 

By WILL L. COMFORT 
A year-old novel gaining in sales with the force 
and enthusiasm of a classic. 

Decorated cloth. $1.50. 



READY IN APRIL 

Dawn of the Morning 

By GRACE L. H. LUTZ 
Author of" Marcia Schuyler" " Phoebe Deane. 



Out of Russia 

By CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 
A stirring adventure novel by the author of 

" The Isle of Dead Ships." 
Illustrated. Cloth. $1.25 net. Postpaid, $1.37. 



READY IN APRIL 

The Royal Pawn of Venice 

By MRS. LAWRENCE TURNBULL 

Author of" The Golden Book of Venice." 

Photogravure frontispiece. Ornamental Cloth, 

$1.50 net. Postpaid $1.62. 



READY IN MAY 

She Buildeth Her House 

By WILL L. COMFORT 

Author of" Routledge Rides Alone." 




In Her Own Right 

By JOHN REED SCOTT 
Author of '" The Impostor," " The Colonel of the Red Hussars," etc 



J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

Pnbliihen of LIPPINCOTTS MAGAZINE ud CHAMBERS'S NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIA 




188 



THE DIAL 



[March IS, 



Just Published: 

H. R. H. The Duke of Mecklenburg's 

IN THE HEART OF AFRICA 

By ADOLPHUS FREDERICK "The Foremost Sportsman in the Kaiser's Dominions." 

"An excellent book of an expedition numbering 700 men. No scientific detail is allowed to 
clog the story or crowd out interesting and stirring incidents." New York Sun. 

One of the most important of modern expeditions into Africa was made by the Duke recently, accompanied 
by a great party of hunters and scientists. The expedition was a complete success. The Duke's narrative 
covers the essential features of the expedition, and apart from its scientific value (London Times : " It is 
safe to say that this book is likely to remain for some time the standard authority on African Exploration ") it 
will be found of the deepest adventurous interest by sportsmen, tourists, and readers of travel. 

Large octavo, 233 illustrations, sumptuously printed. Net, $5.00 (postage, 30 cents). 

S. H. LEEDER 

The Desert Gateway 

Have you read "The Garden of Allah"? 

Then you will thoroughly enjoy Mr. Leeder's fascinating 
book, for in it he deals in the flesh with the characters who 
people Hichens's famous story, and their surroundings and 
manner of life. " Biskra and Thereabouts " is the sub-title 
of this delightful narrative of pageants and prayers and of 
feasts and visits. Those who would understand the desert 
people will find this book of the greatest interest and value. 
Illustrated. Net, $1.75 (postage 15 cents). 

Steamships and Their Story " 



G. H. B. WARD 

The Truth About Spain 

" Spain is at last waking up from her long 
sleep. But how shall she rise and walk along 
the road that leads to better things?" 

Here is the answer. Mr. Ward, for many years a close 
student of Spanish affairs, analyzes the situation from 
many different points of view political, ecclesiastical, 
educational, legal, social, industrial, commercial, economic, 
military, and naval reveals what is wrong and points to the 
remedy. The true story of the trial and execution of Ferrer 
is given. 12 full-page plates. Net, $2.00 (postage 20 cents). 

E. Keble Chatterton's 

"This massive, comprehensive, and splendid volume." Boston Transcript. 

A most fascinating volume of progress, of fact, anecdote, and contrasts, describing the struggles and triumphs which 
finally evolved the monster turbine liners of to-day. 153 illustrations, many in colors. Net, $5.00 (postage, 30 cents). 



CLEMENT K. SHORTER 

Napoleon in His Own 
Defence 

" This volume is likely to give an 
entirely different direction to the study 
of Napoleon. For it is the first time in 
which the man is heard to speak of 
his tremendous plans, his wonderful 
achievements, and the causes of his 
downfall as perhaps never before in all 
that wilderness of records already ex- 
tant about him." St. Louis Globe- 
Democrat. 4 rare plates. Net, $4-00 
(postage, 25 cents ). 



CAPTAIN FRANK H. SHAW 
and ERNEST ROBINSON 

The Sea and Its Story 

" If anything relating to the sea and 
to its navigation has been omitted from 
this massive and remarkable volume, it 
is probably of little value and of little 
interest. Every phase of the sea and 
its story is given a separate chapter, 
and each of the more than fifty stories 
is complete in itself." Boston Trans- 
cript. With more than 250 illustrations. 
Octavo. Net, $3.50 (postage, 40 cents). 

The New Fiction: 



JOHN FOSTER FRASER 

Australia: The Making 
of a Nation 

" He is the candid friend, but a truly 
appreciative one, and he has made an 
exceedingly lively book, which the 
Australians may not like. It can be 
commended to Americans who wish to 
gain an intelligent and by no means 
cut-and-dried knowledge of Australia." 
Philadelphia Press. With 64 plates. 
Net, $1.75 (postage 15 cents). 



"The Lame Englishman 



Warwick Deeping's 

" The best modern novel Mr. Deeping has yet written." Athenaeum. You live again through the eager days of the 
Garibaldi insurrection in this vivid and enthusiastic story of love and the march of troops in the Italy of '49. 

Frontispiece in colors. Net, $1.20 (postage, 12 cents). 

Other Books by Mr. Deeping: THE RUST OF ROME, Net, $1.20 BEBTRAND OF BRITTANY, $1.50 THE 
RED SAINT, $1.50 MAD BARBARA, $1.50 BESS OF THE WOODS, $1.50 UTHER AND IGRAINE, $1.50 A 
WOMAN'S WAR, $1.50 THE SLANDERERS, $1.50 SEVEN STREAMS, Net, $1.20 LOVE AMONG THE RUINS, $1.50. 



Percy Brebner's 



"The Brown Mask 



By the author of " The Princess Maritza." The brown mask conceals a mysterious but fascinating highwayman, 
whose chivalry, deeds of daring, faithfulness to his love, combine to make him a truly noteworthy character in recent 
fiction. Frontispiece in colors. Net, $1.20 (postage, 12 cents). 



Publishers 



CASSELL & COMPANY 

43-45 East 19th Street 



New York 



1911.] THE DIAL, 189 



CROWELL'S NEW BOOKS 



Literature 
The Evolution of Literature By A. s. MACKENZIE 

An account of the development of literature, from its beginnings with the chants, war- 
dances, boat-songs, etc., of primitive man, down through the ancient Greek, Egyptian, and 
Indian literatures, to modern times. A manual of Comparative Literature designed both 
for scholars and for the general public. The author is professor of English and Logic at the 
State University of Kentucky. Ten illustrations. Svo, cloth, net $2.50. 

First Folio Shakespeare, Two New Volumes 

Henry IV. Parts 1 and 2 Edited by CHARLOTTE PORTER 

With the publication of these two volumes thirty-three plays will have appeared in this 
attractive edition, concerning which Professor Brander Matthews says: "It is much the 
best edition of Shakespeare for the serious student now available." 

Photogravure frontispieces. Cloth, gilt top, each, 75 cents. Leather, Si.oo. 

New Thought 
The Miracle of Right Thought By ORISON SWETT MARDEN 

" Replete with suggestion and encouragement for young men." 

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, Jr. 

" No man who endeavors to live as this book suggests can but be a better man, more use- 
ful in his home and in his community." Boston Evening Transcript. 

izmo, cloth, net $1.00. Pocket edition, silk, net$i. 25. Leather, net$i. 50. 

Inspirational Books 
Getting On By ORISON SWETT MARDEN 

" I believe that ' Getting On ' will be of immense assistance to all young men who read 
it." LORD NORTHCLIFFE, London Daily Mail. 

I2mo, cloth, net$i.oo. Pocket edition, silk, net$i. 25. Leather, net $1.50. 

Be Good to Yourself By ORISON SWETT MARDEN 

" Dr. Marden is the Samuel Smiles of the 2Oth century. This book is a plea to men to 
consider themselves of worth, and to take all care of body, mind, and soul." Christian 
Work and Evangelist. 

12010, cloth, net $1.00. Pocket edition, silk, net $1.25. Leather, net $1.50. 



THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY NEW YORK 



190 THE DIAL. [March 16, 



Little, Brown, & Company's Spring Fiction 



THE BROAD HIGHWAY By Jeffery Farnol 

Sixth printing of a powerful romance " written with freshness and vigor, reminding one of Borrows, with plot and 
characters always moving and doing," says the Outlook. $1.35 net- 

THE GIFT OF THE GRASS By John Trotwood Moore 

Fourth Printing of an appealing novel of Tennessee life, woven around the career of ". Hal Pointer," prince of pacers. 

Illustrated by G. PATRICK NELSON. $1.50. 

THE GOLDEN WEB By Anthony Partridge 

A big story of London life, involving mystery, business hazards, and love. 

Illustrated by WILLIAM KIRKPATRICK. $1.50. 

A WOMAN WITH A PURPOSE By Anna Chapin Ray 

Depicts the married life of a strong, self-willed man of affairs and a wife of high ideals. 

Illustrated by FRANK SNAPP. $1.25 net. 

HOW LESLIE LOVED By Anne Warner 

Not only a bright, buoyant love story, but a swift, penetrating satire on modern manners. 

Illustrated by A. B. WENZELL. $1.25 net. 

ALISE OF ASTRA By H. B. Marriott Watson 

An exceptionally compelling novel of love and ambition, intrigue and revolution. 

Frontispiece by F. GRAHAM COOTES. $1.50. 

THE RED ROOM By William Le Queux 

The tale of a murder mystery, with intricate and baffling problems. 

Illustrated by CYRUS CUNEO. $1.50. (Eeady March 25.} 

THE MOVING FINGER By E. Phillips Oppenheim 

A story of the complicated love affairs and startling revelations in the life of a young occult. 

Illustrated by J. V. McFALL. $1.25 net. (Ready May 6.) 

THE LAND CLAIMERS By John Fleming Wilson 

A thoroughly American and human story of life in the Northwestern wilderness. 

Illustrated by ARTHUR E. BECHER. $1.50. (Eeady April 15.) 

A BOOK OF DEAR DEAD WOMEN By Edna Worthley Underwood 

Stories most unusual for vivid coloring and perfection of atmosphere. $1.25 net. (Heady March 25.) 

TO LOVE AND TO CHERISH By Eliza Calvert Hall 

A strong story of the moral struggle of a young man fighting between love and ambition. 

Illustrated by J. V. McFALL. $1.00 net. (Eeady May 6.) 

THE PATH OF GLORY By Paul Leland Haworth 

A stirring romance of the French and Indian War, with a charming heroine and rival suitors. 

Illustrated by HARRY C. EDWARDS. $1.25 net. (Eeady April 15). 

FORGED IN STRONG FIRES By John Ironside 

A realistic novel of the Boer War period, with an original plot, and a charming love element. 

Illustrated by STANLEY L. WOOD. $1<25 net. (Eeady March 25.) 



Little, Brown, & Company Publishers Boston 



1911-] THE DIAL, 191 



HIS PRIVATE LIFE BY HIS PRIVATE SECRETARY 

CECIL RHODES 

By PHILIP JOURDAN. 16 Illustrations. Cloth. 8vo. $2.50 net. Postage 20 cents. 

" I wa* mott closely associated with him for eight years prior to hit death and he placed implicit confidence in 
me, going even to the length of insisting upon mi/ opening and making mtuelf acquainted with all hit corretpondence, 
whether marked ' strictly confidential ' or not." From the Introduction. 

THE SILENCES OF THE MOON 

By HENRY LAW WEBB. Cloth. 12mo. $1.50 net. Postage 15 cents. 

A book to refreth the mind betel by dull actual thingt, and weary of their tiretome pretture. Itopent a door 
upon protpect* of great tpacc. 

BRAHMS 

ByJ. A. FULLER-MAITLAND. 12 Illustrations. Cloth. 8vo. $2.50 net. Postage 20 cents. 
The author tracet the development of Srahms' art from the earliett pianoforte sonata, through all the classes 
of music which he adorned with hit genius. 

TWO RUSSIAN REFORMERS 

TOLSTOY TURGENEV 

By J. A. T. LLOYD Illustrated. 8vo. $3.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOCIETY CLAIRVOYANT 

The author records a remarkable career. He tell* of solving mysteries in the world of fashion from London to 
San Francisco, alto robberies, murders, etc. Discusses, all kinds of psychic phenomena. 

Cloth. 8vo. 13.00 net. Postage 15 cents. 

THE FATE OF HENRY OF NAVARRE 

By JOHN 8LOUNDELLE BURTON. 

Illustrations of the Notable Placet of Parit, Including a Map of the City, 1610, and Portraits of the Leading 
Personages of the Time in France. Cloth. 8vo. $4.00 net. Postage 25 cents. 

LADY JOHN RUSSELL 

A Memoir with Selections from her Diaries and Corretpondence. Edited by DESMOND MACCAKTHY and AGATHA 
RUSSELL. Ten illustrations, of which six are in color. Cloth. 8vo. $3.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

EARLY CHRISTIANS IN ROME 

By the DEAN OF GLOUCESTER. 

12 Illustrations and a Frontispiece in Color. Cloth. 8vo. $4.00 net. Postage 25 cents. 

SEYMOUR HICKS Twenty-four Years of an Actor's Life 

By Himself. Frontispiece Portrait of the Author. Cloth. 12mo. $1.25 net. Postage 10 cents. 

THE ROMANCE OF PRINCESS AMELIA 

Daughter of George in. By WILLIAN S. CHILDE-PEMBERTON. 

Cloth. 8vo. Illustrated. $5.00 net. Postage 25 cents. 
Tells the true story of Princes t Amelia's life, and of her attachment to General Charles FitzRoy. 

FEMININE INFUENCE ON THE POETS 

EDWARD THOMAS. 

Illustrated with Portraits from the Paintings of Van Dyke and others. Cloth. 8vo. $3.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

WAGNER AT HOME 

By JUDITH GAUTIER Daughter of THEOPH I LE GAUTIER. 

Photogravure Frontispiece An Unusual Portrait of Wagner and other Illustrations. 
Cloth. 8vo. $3.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

NOBLE DAMES AND NOTABLE MEN OF THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 

ByJOHNFYVIE. Illustrated with Portraits. Cloth. 8vo. $3.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

LADY MARY COKE THE COUNTESS OF STRATHMORE ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND 

SIR HENRY BATE-DUDLEY BAMPFYLDE-MOORE CAREW ABRAHAM TUBKER 

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: A Study In Economics and Romance 

By G. R. STIRLING TAYLOR. Photogravure illustrations. Cloth. 8vo. $2.50 net. Postage 25 cents. 

LABRADOR: Its Discovery, Exploration, and Development 

By W. G. GOSLING. 

Frontispiece Photo by the author. Numerous other illustrations and maps. Cloth. 8vo. $6.00 net. Postage 30 cents. 



JOHN LANE COMPMW* NEW YORK 



192 THE DIAL. [March 16, 




Spring Announcement 1911 



DANA ESTES & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS BOSTON 



Frank Brangwyn and His Work 

By WALTER SHAW-SPARROW. With 20 Illustrations in Color, 16 in Collotype, and Cover 
Design by the Artist. Crown 4to, $3.50 net. 

Every phase of Frank Brangwyn's art is dealt with in this splendidly produced book: Oil Pictures, 
Water Colors, Tempera Painting, Decorative Painting, Sketches, Etchings, Designs for Household 
Furniture, Stained Glass, etc. 

The Dog Lover 9 s Book 

Pictured by EDWIN NOBLE, B.R.A. With Preface by Major RICHARDSON. 4to, Cloth, $4.50 net. 

All about Dogs by a well-known dog lover. The book is divided into four main parts, dealing with 
Watch Dogs and Guardians, Sporting Dogs, Lapdogs and Pets, Wild Dogs and their Kinsmen, 
with a section of general information on training, common ailments, Shows, and Dog Law. The 
whole is beautifully illustrated in colors, with a diagram of the comparative sizes of Dogs and smaller 
illustrations in black-and-white in addition. 

For Her Namesake 

An Anthology of Poetical Addresses by Devout Lovers to Gentle Maidens. Edited by STEPHEN 
LANGTON. Printed in two colors on hand -made paper. 12mo, Cloth, $1.25 net; Full Ecrase 
Calf, $2.50 net. 



Talleyrand the Man 



From the French of BERNARD DE LACOMBE. 8vo, Cloth, $3.50 net. 

This important work contains a full account from hitherto unpublished sources of the great Diplo- 
matist's private life and final reconciliation to the Church. 

A Modern Outlook 

Studies of English and American Tendencies. By J. A. HOBSON. 1 Vol. Crown 8vo, $1.50 net 

A volume full of keen perception on Life and Letters, The Woman of the Future, American Tracts, 
Politics, etc. 

Beautiful England Series 

Encouraged by the great success of this beautiful series we will issue at once the following NEW 
TITLES : CAMBRIDGE. By NOEL HARWELL 

NORWICH AND THE BROADS. By WALTER JERROLD 
THE HEART OF WESSEX. By SIDNEY HEATH 

Other Volumes in Preparation 

Illustrated in color by ERNEST H ASLEHUST. Svo, boards, in a box matching the binding. 

Price, $1.25. 

British Mountain Climbs 

By GEORGE D. ABRAHAM, author of "The Complete Mountaineer," "Rock Climbing in North 
Wales," etc. With 18 Illustrations and 21 outline drawings showing the principal routes. 

Price, $2.50 net. 

UNIFORM WITH THE ABOVE 

Swiss Mountain Climbs 

By GEORGE D. ABRAHAM, author of " British Mountain Climbs," etc. Illustrated with Photo- 
graphs and Diagrams. Bound in waterproof cloth, pocket size, wallet style. Price, $2.50 net. 



1911.] 



THE DIAI, 



193 



Messrs. Duf field & Company Announce 



"THE GROWTH 

OF NAPOLEON" 

A Study in Environment 
By NORWOOD YOUNG 

"Extremely interesting and thor- 
oughly clever. It is an important 
addition to the literature of the 
miraculous Corsican." 

yew York Evening Mail. 

With portraits and illustrations. 
$3.75 net. 



"LORD BELLINGER" 

By HARRY GRAHAM % 

$1 20 net. 

A witty satire on the House of Lords, by 
the author of " Misrepresentative Men " and 
" The Bolster Book." 



EDITIONS 

"PATSY" 

By H. deVERE STACPOOLE 

f 1.20 net. 

"The hero is capital." The New 
York Sun. 




"THE FACE OF 
MANCHURIA, KOREA, 

AND 

RUSSIAN TURKESTAN" 

By E. G. KEMP, F.R.G.S. 
A responsible account of four 
months' travel through a region of 
exceptional interest at this mo- 
ment . Profusely illustrated in color. 
$2 .50 net. 

SEVENTH EDITIOy. 

"ONE BRAVER 
THING" 

By RICHARD DEHAN 

$1.40 net. 

"The tale so palpably is writen 
with blood and tears and fire." 

Chicago Record-Herald. 



"SIR 

GEORGE'S 
OBJECTION" 

By Mrs. W. K. CLIFFORD 
$1.20 net. 

"Leaves us in the best of tem- 
pers." London Time*. 

"THIEVES" 

By AIX 
$1.30 net. 

A new novel by the anonymous au- 
thor of "Adventures of a Nice Young 
Man," "Thieves" deals with the great 
" tariff -protected" interests and their 
conflict with labor and honesty. Pic- 
tures by James Montgomery Flagg. 



H. G. WELLS 
THIRD LARGE EDITION. 

H. G. WELLS'S New Novel 

"The New Machiavelli" 

" The book is a stimulant not to be refused. It is 
easy to repudiate many things in Mr. Wells. But 
he is better to assimilate than to reject. He has the 
yeast of life in him, the microbe of adventure. And 
to exclude him is to cut off an influence which, if 
not wholly reasoned or successfully sublimated, still 
has vitality irresistible and staunch sincerities." 
FBANCIS HACKETT in the Chicago Evening Pott. 



EIGHTH EDITION. 

"CHRISTOPHER 

HIBBAULT, 
ROADMAKER " 

By 

MARGUERITE BRYANT 
$1.50. 

"A thoughtful story of serious 
purpose and of high-minded 
endurance, endeavor, and ac- 
complishment.' ' 

The N. Y. Evening Pott. 



"THE WASTREL" 

By A. D. H. Smith $1.25 net 

" PRINCESS KATHARINE" 

By Katharine Tynan $1.20 net 

"TILLERS OF THE SOIL" 

By J. E. Patterson $1.30 net 

"A COSSACK LOVER" 

By M. G. D. Bianchi $1.30 net 

"YOUNG LIFE" 

By Jessie Leckie Herbertson $1.20 net 

THE WHITE PEACOCK " 
By D. H. Lawrence $1.30 net 

"THE PARTING OF THE WAYS" 

By Henry Bordeaux $1.30 net 



"HALF LOAVES" 

By HELEN MACKAY 
$1.30 net. 

The first long novel by the author 
of ' ' Houses of Glass.' ' The scenes of 
the new book are laid in England and 
Italy and tell a very moving and 
subtle story. 



DUFIHDigCOMB\NY 




NEW YORK 



194 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



Keeping Up 
with Lizzie 



Irving Bacheller 

" The trouble," says the Honorable Socrates Potter, 
who tells the story, "began when Samuel Henshaw, 
grocer, started to make a queen of his daughter 
Lizzie." The pace set by her corrupted the simpli- 
city of the little Connecticut town, and the new houses, 
"with towers on them," the automobiles, university 
tuition, and foreign tours jeopardized the financial 
stability of the community. The story is a shrewd 
commentary on American life, and its humor and 
humanity make it the best of Mr. 
Bacheller's shorter books. 
Illustrated. I2mo, 



Cloth, $1.00 
net. 



The Unknown 

Justus Miles Forman 

Suppose you had something of a very great and un- 
usual value, something you believed in with all your 
heart and you wanted to tell other people about it 
what would you say ? That is somewhat the situa- 
tion one finds one's self in in trying to talk about 
" The Unknown Lady." It does n't make any differ- 
ence what kind of a plot it has, nor whether the scene 
is Paris or a country town the story itself is there, 
palpitating warm with life, vigorous with feeling, 
appealing with gracious manner and 
enticing charm of style. 

With frontispiece. 
Post 8^0, Cloth, 
$1.50. 



The 

Married Miss Worth 

Louise Closser Hale 

The comedy of an all-night rehearsal, the pathos of the never-ending one-night stands, the domestic side of 
life behind the scenes all are here in this remarkable novel by the author of " The Actress." The real no 
the fiction stage life is seen through the sympathetic eyes of a successful actress who can tell what she sees. 
It is the heart story of stage folk. A husband and wife both temperamental actors go in separate companies 
on his refusal to take an inferior part in a company with her. With frontispiece. Post S'uo, Cloth, $1 .20 net. 



The Skipper and 

the Skipped Holman Day 

Full of humor, with the tang of the brine along 
Cap'n Sproul's native Maine coast. Cap'n Sproul, 
the author's famous character, has new humorous 
adventures that turn the town topsy-turvy. Pitted 
against the local tyrant, Colonel Gideon Ward, the 
Cap'n is often in desperate straits. " A lot of medi- 
tation and a little prayer will do wonders in this 
world, especially when you're mad enough," is 
Cap'n Sproul's philosophy. 

Illustrated. Post 8<vo, Cloth, $1.50. 



The 
Lever 



William Dana Orcutt 



Philadelphia likes " The Lever " ; 

"Here is a story of big business, representative 
American families and society that will find popular 
favor." 

And Boston, too : 

" It is so far removed from the ordinary in all that 
goes to the making of a strong story that one is 
obliged to go back to the acknowledged masters for 
comparison." frontispiece by F. Graham Cootes. 

8vo, Cloth, $1.50. 



Fortunata 

Marjorie Patterson 

Fortunata what a name for this won- 
derful new girl this Italian Becky 
Sharp! A new sort of heroine, indeed. 
She attains her object, long schemed 
for, by marrying a man of wealth, but 
finds it difficult to play the partot the 
simple, unsophisticated woman he at 
first believes her. This will be the 
talked-about book of the summer. 
There is a wealth of characters like a 
Hogarth drawing. With frontispiece. 
Post 8-vo, Cloth, $1.30 net. 



Mary Gary 

Kate Langley Bosher 
"Let's be glad for books 
like 'Mary Cary'!" ex- 
claimed one critic. An- 
other believes this little 
book " worthy of being re- 
ceived into all the house- 
holds of America, a story 
that, in time, will be as 
much of a favorite as any. ' ' 
Frontispiece in color. I2mo, 
Cloth, $l.oo net. 



HARPER & 
BROTHERS 



Glamourie 

William Samuel Johnson 

This romance of the soul of Paris is 
painted with insight, imagination, 
and delicate mysticism. It is much 
more than a novel. Sir Michael 
Burke, an eloquent, magnetic hunch- 
back, becomes the friend of John 
Dwight, a reserved New Englander. 
The Irishman shows Dwight the 
picture of his cousin, Golden Burke, 
confessing his love for her. At the 
last he explains to Dwight and 
Golden the gospel of love "accord- 
ing to St. Michael." 

Post 8vo, Cloth, $1.20 net. 




1911.] THE DIAL 195 



The Baker & Taylor Co/s Books 

THE NEW NATIONALISM ^ By Theodore Roosevelt 

Mr. Roosevelt's declaration and defence of his political creed. 
12mo, 268 pages. $1.50 net ; postage, 12 cents. 

THE TENNESSEE SHAD By Owen Johnson 

More Law renceville Stories about " Doc Macnooder," " Finnegan," 

"The Tennessee Shad," and the rest. 
I2mo, 350 pages, illustrated. $1.20 net ; postage, 10 cents. 

THE CANON IN RESIDENCE By Victor L. Whitechurch 

A novel of life in an English cathedral town. Recalls Trollope in subject and manner. 
12mo, 350 pages. $1.20 net ; postage, 10 cents. 

GILE AD BALM A 8erte| of detective 8tories mlted by a ^^ romance By Bernard Capes 

12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. $1.25 net ; postage, 12 cents. 

DAN McLEAN'S ADVENTURES By Frederick Walworth Brown 

Stirring exploits on the Mississippi among river pirates. An American " Treasure Island." 
12mo, 300 pages, frontispiece. $1.25. 

THE BLUE GOOSE CHASE By Herbert K. Job 

A camera hunt, in which two boys play an active part in the Southern swamps. 
12mo, 350 pages, illustrated. $1.25. 

MALORY'S KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS By Henry B. Lathrop 

Gives the true flavor of the famous old book. 
12mo, 370 pages, illustrated by Reginald Birch. $1.50 net ; postage, 14 cents. 

SEEING EUROPE BY AUTOMOBILE By Lee Meriwether 

Familiar and unfamiliar places seen from one's own car. 
12mo, 400 pages, fully illustrated. $2.00 net ; postage. 16 cents. 

THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO LIVING THINGS By E. T. Brewster 

(For children from eight to fifteen.) A narrative and readable account of familiar living things. 

Firtt volume in this new series 
I2mo, 320 pages, illustrated. $1.20 net ; postage, 10 cents. 

GUIDE TO ENGLISH HISTORY By Henry W. Elson 

A narrative and anecdotal account of England's story. 
12mo, 360 pages, fully illustrated. $1.25 net ; postage, 12 cents. 

GUIDE TO GREAT CITIES WESTERN EUROPE Esther Singleton 

Describes the famous cities of France and the Spanish peninsula. 
I2mo, 360 pages, fully illustrated. $1.25 net ; postage 12 cents. 

A PARADISE IN PORTUGAL By Mark Sale 

An intimate and sincere account of a long sojourn in Portugal. 
12mo, 168 pages. $1.00 net ; postage, 8 cents. 

THE DAWN OF MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATION By Angelo Mosso 

_ A monumental work of scholarship. 
Royal 8vo. 424 pages, 224 illustrations. $4.00 net ; postage, 30 cents. 

SIXTINE ROME By J. A. F. Orbaan 

A contribution to the architectural and personal history of Papal Rome. 
8vo, about 350 pages, profusely illustrated. $2.50 net ; postage, 16 cents. 




A POET'S ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS By Alfred Noyes 

16mo, 407 pages. $1.00 net ; postage 10 cents. 
A collection of famous and charming poems by a true poet. 

KINDERGARTEN AT HOME By V. M. Hillyer 

Play lessons arranged for use by mothers and children. 
8vo, 200 pages, illustrated with drawings and diagrams. $1.25 net; postage, 14 cents. 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CITY 



o 



196 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



PUTNAM'S SPRING BOOKS 




By ELLEN KEY 

Avithor of The Century of the Child," etc. 

With a Critical and Biographical Introduction by HAVELOCK ELLIS 

Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

In Love and Marriage, the veteran Swedish reformer attacks problems the most vital to the 
welfare of the human race, problems which have throughout the centuries engaged the attention 
of leaders of thought. 

Whether or not the reader be prepared to accept the conclusions and recommendations of the 
Swedish thinker, he must recognize that these conclusions represent the result of painstaking and 
scholarly thought and investigation. Daring and iconoclastic as they may be, the views of Ellen 
Key are presented with a calmness and philosophy of method that is absolutely free from any trace 
of sensationalism. The book which is being distributed in half a dozen languages to a world's 
public, must be accepted as a most important contribution to philosophic thought. 



A Short History of 
Women's Rights 

From the Days of Augustus to the 
Present Time 

By EUGENE A. HECKER 
Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The most significant chapters, and those which 
have an especially vital interest, are devoted to 
the growth of women's rights in England and in 
America, the modifications made throughout the 
centuries in the property rights of women, in laws 
and customs affecting marriage and divorce, etc. 
Much emphasis is laid on her acquisition of more 
extensive educational privileges, on her participa- 
tion in the vocations of men, and on her efforts to 
attain the right to vote and to hold public office. 



The Authorized Version of the 
Bible and Its Influence 

By ALBERT S. COOK 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in 

Yale University. 
Crown 8vo. $1.00 net. 

Prof. Albert S. Cook of Yale University is one of 
the few American scholars who up to the present 
have been asked to contribute chapters to The 
Cambridge History of English Literature. His con- 
tribution was a very significant one and has been 
widely extolled for its sound scholarship and its 
effective presentation. A few changes have been 
made, and certain passages, retrenched from the 
MS. by the editors of The Cambridge History of 
English Literature to adapt it to the limits of the 
assigned space, are in the present reprint restored. 



Criminal Man 

According to the Classification of CESARE LOMBROSO 

Briefly summarized by his daughter, GINA LOMBROSO FERRERO 
Crown 8vo. Probable price, $1.50 net. 

By the death of Professor Cesare Lombroso in the fall of 1909 the world lost a very remarkable 
man, to whom posterity will, perhaps, assign an eminence even greater than that conceded by his 
contemporaries. Until he broke in upon the barren, abstract discussion of crime and its causes 
with hU daring paradoxes, the nature of the criminal and his inclination to crime was only vaguely 
understood. Few have done more than he to put an end to the delusions which long obstructed 
sensible treatment of the criminal classes. 

No slight significance, is, therefore, attached to this summary by his daughter Gina Lombroso 
Ferrero, the wife of the eminent historian, Guglielmo Ferrero. 

Send for New Illustrated Catalogue 



PUBLISHED 
BY 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK 
AND LONDON 



1911.] 



THE DIA1, 



197 



PUTNAM'S SPRING BOOKS 

WHY WAR MUST CEASE! 

The Great Illusion 

A Study of the Relation of Military Power in Nations to 
Their Economic and Social Advantages 

By NORMAN ANGELL 

400 pages. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

' Mr. Angell throws into the dust bin the worn-out theories, the axioms of statecraft, the shib- 
boleths of diplomats, the mouthings of politicastros as to the necessity for war. . . . Not to speak 
of it flamboyantly, this work is to war and to the spirit of the war god the modern Mene, Mene. 
Tekel, Upharsin, the flamingly prophetic handwriting on the wall for all captains of whatsoever 
sort who by means of war would keep humanity frightened, brutalized, enslaved, and impover- 
ished." St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 

The book is being published simultaneously in the United States, England, 
France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Holland, Italy, Sweden, and Japan. 

Send for Circular 



The Clipper Ship Era 

By ARTHUR H. CLARK 

An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper 
Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews. 

400 page*. 39 illustrations. $2.00 net. 

The Clipper Ship Era began in 1843 as a result of 
the growing demand for a more rapid delivery of 
tea from China, and the memorable years from 
1843 to 1869 form one of the most important and 
interesting periods of maritime history. 

In Captain Clark's fascinating narrative, told in 
an attractive manner by an expert thorough in his 
subject, we see the stately, frigate-built "Indiaman," 
with her batteries of guns and the hammocks stowed 
in nettings, disappear, and her place taken by the swift 
China, California, and Australian clippers, which in 
their turn, after a long and gallant contest, at last 
vanish before the advancing power of steam. 

Send for Circular 



Schools of Painting 

By MARY INNES 

Edited, with a chapter on Schools of Painting in Amer- 
ica, and certain further additional material by 
CHARLES DE KAY. 

Svo. 106 illustrations. $2.50 net. 

This book offers a general view of the development 
of painting in Europe from the first century A.D. 
to the beginning of the nineteenth. It aims at 
supplying an historical background to the art move- 
ments in various countries, so that the influence of 
one school upon another may be rightly judged 
A brief biography is given of the prominent paint- 
ers in each school, with a description of their most 
famous pictures and an appreciation of their work. 
It is well illustrated with characteristic examples 
of each school, and each painter of note. 



Behind the Screens in Japan 

An Englishman's Impressions 

By EVELYN ADAM Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. 

The book is no surface picture of Japanese life, but a penetrating study of the country and its 
people based on a long residence in the land of the cherry blossom. It pierces the thin coat of 
modernism with which the little brown people of the East have industriously overlaid their ancient 
customs, and gives an unvarnished account of the sub-surface aspects of Japanese life and char- 
acter. Every page of the book vibrates with life and scarcely one but has a spice of humor. 

Send for New Illustrated Catalogue 



PUBLISHED 
BY 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 



NEW YORK 
AND LONDON 



198 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 1911. 



New Macmillan Novels 



The Justice of the King 



By HAMILTON DRUMMOND 

There are exciting adventures in this new novel, told with 
refreshing directness and simplicity, filled with the charm of 
tender love-making and the intense loyalty of youth. 

Cloth, $1.20 net; by mail, $1.32. 

Trevor Lordship 

By Mrs. HUBERT BARCLAY 

A pleasant novel of an uncommon kind ; its love problem arises 
between two married folk ; each fears that the other's love 
sleeps, and each dreads to move lest it fail to awake. The 
social setting of the story is particularly enjoyable. 

Cloth, $1 .20 net ; by mail, $1 32. 

While Caroline Was Growing 

By JOSEPHINE DASKAM BACON 

"Caroline" needs no introduction to readers of "The Biog- 
raphy of a Boy," etc., and every one who has ever come into 
contact with the mentality of a growing girl will find in the 
story a deal of sympathetic entertainment. Cloth, $1.50. 

Klaus Hinrich Baas 

By GUSTAV FRENSSEN 

THE STORY OF A SELF-MADE MAN. A thoroughly remarkable 
novel is this story of the rise of a physically strong, proud Ger- 
man peasant. There is a similarity between some of the con- 
ditions described and those existing in this country which gives 
the book a peculiar interest to Americans. In many ways it is 
the most powerfully interesting novel of the spring season. 

Cloth, $1.50. 

Adventure 

By JACK LONDON 

From the opening chapter it is a wonderful feat of imaginative 
writing. The life described is that of the South Sea Islands in 
the heat of the tropics and the tension of the white man's mas- 
tery. The whole effect is eerie, such as one feels who stands 
alone by a blazing fire that throws flickering shadows on the 
blackness of an unfriendly forest. It is strong and fascinating. 

Cloth, $1.50. 



JUSTM 

ornit 
KING 



THE JUSTICE 
OF THE RING 




HAMILTON DRUMMOND 





PUBLISHED 
BY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



64-66 Fifth Ave. 
NEW YORK 



THE DIAL 

ScmtsfHontfjIg ^Journal of SLtterarg Criticism, Discussion, ano Information. 



THE DIAL (founded in 1880) it published on the 1st and 16th oj 
each month. TEEMS or SUBSCRIPTION, 82. a year in advance, postage 
prepaid in the United State*, and Mexico; foreign and Canadian 
postage 50 cents per year extra. REMITTANCES should be by check, or 
by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL COMPANY. 
Unless otherwise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current 
number. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of sub- 
scription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription 
is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. AH com- 
munications should be addressed to 

THE DIAL, Fine Arts Building, Chicago. 

Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at 
Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. 



No. 694. 



MARCH 16, 1911. 



Vol. L. 



CONTEXTS. 



FRIEDRICH SPIELHAGEN 199 

WANTED: A HANDBOOK OF CRITICISM. 

Charles Leonard Moore 201 

CASUAL COMMENT 203 

A national library for Canada. How our copyright 
laws impress an outsider. The advent of " Marie- 
Claire." A record of recrimination. A librarian, 
poet, and humorist. The morbid sensitiveness of 
some novel-readers. The limited edition. Two 
new Academicians. The " Orchard House " at Con- 
cord. Count Apponyi and Kossuth. The human- 
ities in France. The Carlyle house at Ecclef echan. 

COMMUNICATIONS 205 

A Word for Acrobatic Art. Irving K. Pond. 
Words and their Ways. Charles Welsh. 

NEW LIGHT ON BROWNING'S PERSONALITY. 

Anna Benneson McMahan 206 

PROBLEMS OF RACE ADJUSTMENT. Kelly Miller 209 

A FRENCHMAN'S STUDY OF THE FRENCH 

REVOLUTION. Fred Morrow Fling .... 212 

DIVERTING DISSERTATIONS ON DICKENS. 

Percy F. Bicknell 214 

A NEW STUDY OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

James M. Garnett 216 

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 217 

Personal traits of Cecil Rhodes. A survey of pre- 
Renaissance literature. More of Emerson's Jour- 
nals. Bookbinding for libraries. A sound piece 
of historical scholarship. Notes from a novelist's 
sketch-book. Christianity and ethics. Freebooters 
of the West Indies. An Italian soldier of the 16th 
century. 

BRIEFER MENTION . . 220 



NOTES 



222 



ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING BOOKS .... 223 
A classified list of books to be issued by American 
publishers during the Spring and Summer of 1911. 

LIST OF NEW BOOKS . ..... .235 



FRIEDRICH SPIELHA GEN. 

There^was a period which may be roughly 
designated as that of the seventies when the 
American public was engaged in a series of 
interesting discoveries in foreign literary parts. 
This spirit of enterprise had been sporadically 
manifested long before 1870, and did not by 
any means subside with the close of the decade, 
but it was perhaps most evident during the time 
in question. It was a phenomenon coincident 
with the disappearance of many of the great 
English-speaking writers (especially novelists) 
who had shaped our ideals during the genera- 
tion just preceding, and with a decline in the 
powers of those still remaining to us. It seemed 
to be the instinctive expression of the feeling 
that we had sucked our own orange nearly dry, 
and that we needed new sources of refreshment. 
Considerably earlier than the seventies, of 
course, the curious New England mind had 
occasionally fared abroad, and returned with 
treasure-trove from Germany, or France, or 
Italy. It may have been " Hesperus," or 
" Consuelo," or "I Promessi Sposi " there 
was nothing very systematic in the quest ; but 
whatever it was, transcendentalists and farmers 
and school-teachers pounced upon it, and ex- 
tracted from it some sort of nutriment. Ideas 
were much astir in those New England days, and 
a new supply was welcome from any quarter. 

It was well before the seventies that we had 
discovered George Sand and Dumas and Hugo 
("Les Miserables" is indissolubly associated, 
not by a wretched jest alone, with our memories 
of the Civil War), but it was not until the 
middle eighties that Balzac became more than 
a name to English readers. The idyllic side of 
Bjbrnson and the impeccable artistry of Tour- 
guenieff became our cherished possessions in the 
seventies, but it was not until the following 
decade that we found our way to Ibsen, and 
learned that Tolstoy had written such books as 
" Anna Karenina " and " War and Peace." 
Meanwhile, many of our most interesting dis- 
coveries were being made in the field of German 
fiction. We had hardly known that there were 
such things as German novels, aside from Goethe 
and Jean Paul, and now we found out that there 
were a great many of them, and some exceed- 
ingly good. Particularly, we made the acquaint- 
ance of Auerbach and Freytag and Spielhagen 



200 



THE DIAL 



[March 16, 



and Heyse, and were plunged deep into the dis- 
cussion of " Auf die Hohe " and " Soil und 
Haben" and " Problematische Naturen " and 
" Kinder der Welt." They were books that 
stirred the stagnant waters and opened new 
avenues to the imagination. They were books, 
moreover, that embodied in their several ways 
definite idealisms, and thus supplied an element 
that seemed to be singularly lacking in our 
rather opportunist fiction in English. 

Were these books as good as we once thought 
them, when they made their appeal to the gen- 
erous impulses of youth, and seemed to bear just 
the message for which the spirit craved ? Prob- 
ably not, since few people think them worth 
reading nowadays, and the water that then 
flowed under the bridges has long since been 
merged with the sea. But with some men of 
middle age here and there they remain as 
ineffaceable memories, just now powerfully 
evoked from the slumbering past by the news 
of Spielhagen's death on the twenty-fourth of 
February, at the exact age of eighty-two. We 
are inclined to hold him, despite certain obvious 
limitations, as good a novelist as Germany has 
ever nurtured. This does not mean that he is 
of the rank of Scott and Hugo, or of Thackeray 
and Balzac, for it has not been given to the 
German genius to produce such men, but it 
does mean that he will have a high and lasting 
place among those who made prose fiction the 
distinctive literary form of the nineteenth 
century. He was possessed of creative power, 
intellectual grasp, and aesthetic intuition in 
remarkable degree, and the fine balance of his 
faculties, as displayed in the works written be- 
tween 1860 and 1880, offers an object worthy 
of our sincere admiration. If our modern 
generation has lost the power to be moved by 
those works of Spielhagen's middle period, it 
is by so much the poorer, and the loss is hardly 
to be offset by gains in other directions. 

Friedrich Spielhagen's fourscore years span- 
ned the period between Goethe's age and our 
own. He was born February 24, 1829, at 
Magdeburg, in the heart of Saxony, but his 
impressionable boyhood time was largely spent 
on the Pomeranian coast, and this Baltic land- 
scape is often pictured in his novels. After 
leaving the university, he became a teacher, but 
soon drifted into journalism. After some years 
in Leipzig and Hannover, he removed to Berlin 
in the early sixties, and thereafter made the 
capital city his home. He was not quite thirty 
when he published " Klara Vere " and " Auf 
der Dime " the novelettes which began the 



long series of his works of fiction. His first 
great novel, " Problematische Naturen," ap- 
peared in 1861, and " Durch Nacht zum 
Licht," its sequel, in the following year. Be- 
fore the sixties were over, he had placed to his 
account three other novels of the first magni- 
tude, " Die von Hohenstein," " Hammer und 
Amboss," and "In Reih und Glied." It is by 
this group of works that he became known to 
English readers in the seventies, although we 
do not recall that an English translation of the 
last-named novel ever saw the light. They gave 
us unforgettable pictures of the life of Young 
Germany its moods and its struggling aspira- 
tions during the years when it was still under 
the spell of Goethe, and was seeking to apply 
his wisdom to the rapidly changing conditions 
of modern life. This was the time of revolu- 
tion, focussed in the great year of Forty-eight, 
and it found in Spielhagen one of its chief 
spiritual interpreters. His sympathies were with 
the people, and the arrogance of the aristocracy 
was depicted with bitter severity in " Die von 
Hohenstein." The hero of " Problematische 
Naturen " and its sequel was a youth of the 
people who nevertheless dared to be a man, and 
his figure became endeared to all romantic 
hearts. The hero of "In Reih und Glied" is 
thought to have had the young Lassalle for a 
prototype. The message of "Hammer und 
Amboss," on the other hand, was social rather 
than political ; here was a powerful preachment 
of the gospel of work alone efficacious in 
healing the diseased mind, alone helpful in the 
struggle for genuine freedom. " Nur die Arbeit 
kann uns frei machen." How the words rang 
in the ears of the generation that heard them, 
how wholesome and authentic was the message 
they conveyed ! 

It will be seen from what has just been said 
(if there be any who need to have it indicated) 
that Spielhagen was no mere dabbler in words, 
no writer who stood aloof in aesthetic indiffer- 
ence from the spec